Telegram! Modern History as Told Through More than 400 Witty, Poignant, and Revealing Telegrams

by Linda Rosenkrantz

There was a time when the sight of a Western Union delivery boy coming up the walk filled Americans with a sense of excitement or trepidation. Between its invention in the mid-nineteenth century and its post-1960s relegation to money transfer and congratulations, the telegraph served as the primary medium for urgent messages. Telegram! collects the most poignant and revealing examples of this earliest form of instant communication.

Organized into categories such as "Parents and Children," "Hooray for Hollywood," and "Lincoln in the Telegraph Office," the telegrams range from such moving personal notes as W.C. Fields's wire to his dying friend John Barrymore, "You can't do this to me," to political advice, such as one voter's telegraphed suggestion to President Herbert "Vote for Roosevelt and make it unanimous."

The communication compiled here also provides a novel and engaging perspective on modern history. Abraham Lincoln virtually conducted the Civil War over the telegraph wires, financial nabobs used them to discuss (and fail to predict) the stock market crash that precipitated the Great Depression, and Japanese diplomats in Washington sent a flurry of encoded telegrams to Tokyo in the weeks leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

This handsome volume blends history, sociology, wit, and creativity as captured and dispatched by the telegram in its golden age.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

207 pages, Hardcover

First published November 11, 2003

About the author

Linda Rosenkrantz is an American writer, known for her innovations in the realm of “nonfiction fiction,” most prominently in her novel Talk, a New York Review Books classic.

Reviews

[Kate Stericker · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book contains some interesting history and clever telegrams, but something about the way the book is formatted makes it a frustrating read. Rosenkrantz's efforts to contextualize each telegram in a quick paragraph before immediately moving on to contextualize another message sent in a totally different set of historical circumstances creates a jarring effect. The second section becomes especially disjointed because Rosenkrantz attempts to touch on dozens of events in modern history, presenting only one to three associated telegrams before moving on to the next event. Furthermore, I often felt that the telegrams provided no additional insight into the historical periods, particularly when the author was simply informing the recipient about the events already described in Rosenkrantz's summary. Finally, it was off-putting to move from long sections dedicated chiefly to funny or cheeky messages sent between public figures to sections containing horrifying telegrams sent by Nazis during the Holocaust or describing the chaos and causalities after natural disasters. Historical telegrams are an intriguing topic for a book, but Rosenkrantz's execution is flawed.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Telegrams were pre-tweets. Good and bad news. So much could be said in them. When news had to get there fast there they were. Telegrams are priceless.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely fascinating read. I'm pretty sure telegrams were the old school equivalent of tweets. There are some wonderful witticisms in here, as well as history-altering declarations, earnest love lines and biting bits of sarcasm, all backed up with clear historical background. There is a bit of a disconnect between the parts of the book here, the first section is a straightforward 'best of Western Union' if you will, the second part basically tells modern history through the lens of the momentous telegrams sent, both good, but quite different in tone. Would definitely recommend this as a quick, informative, and entertaining read.

[William O. Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always had a fascination with this early means of fast communication—the telegram. The book highlights the impact the telegram made in peoples' lives and even how it impacted historical events. The only criticisms I have is that editors did not proof read. On page 172, it is stated that Ngo Dinh Diem was President of South Korea when in fact, he was President of South Vietnam. The other criticism is the way the book is formatted. It is not chronological in its time flow of events. One paragraph may be discussing the impact of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The next may be discussing an event occurring during the American Civil War.

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting and often amusing book. It covers the role of the telegraph (the old timey equivalent of a text message or email) in American history, with over 400 examples of real telegrams sent by various famous people. I had never thought much about the telegraph before, but this book underscores just how significant it was up through the 1960s. I confess I preferred the first half of the book, which had the shorter and funnier telegrams, to the second half, which concerned the telegraph's role in war and disasters. Definitely worth a read.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got this from my dad, and ended up passing it back to my mom who uses some of the telegrams as primary sources in a project with her library classes. It was a quick, interesting read.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't one of those "can't put it down" books, but it was still very interesting.

[Wendy Quest · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really neat guide to the invention and integration of the telegraph into American society. The actual telegrams that were sent are fascinating. Great reference guide.