{"product_id":"lightning-beneath-the-sea-the-race-to-wire-the-world-and-the-dawn-of-the-information-age-9781324036029","title":"Lightning Beneath the Sea: The Race to Wire the World and the Dawn of the Information Age","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1854, the American entrepreneur Cyrus Field set out to lay a 2,000-mile telegraph cable across the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Nothing like it had ever been attempted. Field knew nothing about telegraphy, electricity, ships, or oceans, and science itself still lacked a universal theory of electricity. But he believed that wiring the world for near-instantaneous communication would bring about peace on Earth. In 1866, after enduring over a decade of global scorn, catastrophic failures, staggering losses, and brushes with death, he would finally lay his great cable, ushering in the global information age. From acclaimed author James M. Tabor, \u003cem\u003eLightning Beneath the Sea\u003c\/em\u003e is an unforgettable tale of radical vision, unwavering determination, and triumph against overwhelming odds that transformed life on Earth forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a propulsive narrative, Tabor tells how Field swiftly assembled an all-star scientific dream team that included telegraph legend Samuel F. B. Morse; a young Lord Kelvin, called the da Vinci of his day; Michael Faraday, the father of electrical engineering; and legendary philanthropist Peter Cooper. Together they battled epic storms, freak accidents, corporate sabotage, the enmity of Abraham Lincoln, and the hubris of the project's original chief electrician--an eccentric who insisted on being called Wildman--while racing two rival efforts to establish telegraphic communications between continents. When it was finally done, Field's cable lay up to 2.5 miles deep under the ocean, and the \u003cem\u003eLondon Daily News\u003c\/em\u003e announced: \"Time and space seem literally annihilated.\" The cable's legacy can be traced today in the hundreds of descendants that still carry 98 percent of the world's information through a \"world undersea web.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDeeply researched and written with verve, \u003cem\u003eLightning Beneath the Sea\u003c\/em\u003e is the gripping account of an epochal achievement.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e W. W. Norton \u0026amp; Company\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/09\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781324036029\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 368","brand":"James M. Tabor","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52435599032501,"sku":"9781324036029","price":27.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_8419a576-bb7c-4bb2-866c-49d77eae0dde.jpg?v=1776227386","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/lightning-beneath-the-sea-the-race-to-wire-the-world-and-the-dawn-of-the-information-age-9781324036029","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}