MARCONI C

A little over a century ago, the world went wireless. Cables and all their limiting inefficiencies gave way to a revolutionary means of transmitting news and information almost everywhere, instantaneously. By means of "Hertzian waves," as radio waves were initially known, ships could now make contact with other ships (saving lives, such as on the doomed S.S. Titanic); financial markets could coordinate with other financial markets, establishing the price of commodities and fixing exchange rates; military commanders could connect with the front lines, positioning artillery and directing troop movements. Suddenly and irrevocably, time and space telescoped beyond what had been thought imaginable. Someone had not only imagined this networked world but realized it: Guglielmo Marconi. As Marc Raboy shows us in this enthralling and comprehensive biography, Marconi was the first truly global figure in modern communications. Born to an Italian father and an Irish mother, he was in many ways stateless, working his cosmopolitanism to advantage. Through a combination of skill, tenacity, luck, vision, and timing, Marconi popularized--and, more critically, patented--the use of radio waves. Soon after he burst into public view at the age of 22 with a demonstration of his wireless apparatus in London, 1896, he established his Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company and seemed unstoppable. He was decorated by the Czar of Russia, named an Italian Senator, knighted by King George V of England, and awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics--all before the age of 40. Until his death in 1937, Marconi was at the heart of every major innovation in electronic communication, courted by powerful scientific, political, and financial interests. He established stations and transmitters in every corner of the globe, from Newfoundland to Buenos Aires, Hawaii to Saint Petersburg. Based on original research and unpublished archival materials in four countries and several languages, Raboy's book is the first to connect significant parts of Marconi's story, from his early days in Italy, to his groundbreaking experiments, to his protean role in world affairs. Raboy also explores Marconi's relationshps with his wives, mistresses, and children, and examines in unsparing detail the last ten years of the inventor's life, when he returned to Italy and became a pillar of Benito Mussolini's fascist regime. Raboy's engrossing biography, which will stand as the authoritative work of its subject, proves that we still live in the world Marconi created.

Marc Raboy is Professor and Beaverbrook Chair in Ethics, Media and Communications in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University

- PART I THE PRODIGY - Chapter One: Bologna: Beginnings - Chapter Two: Priority and Detractors - Chapter Three: London: Start-up - Chapter 4: The Magician - Chapter Five: New York: New Frontiers - Chapter Six: Love and Imperialism - Chapter Seven: The Upstart Technology - Chapter Eight: "The Great Thing" - Chapter Nine: Newfoundland: The World Shrinks - PART II THE PLAYER - Chapter Ten: Corralling the Brand - Chapter Eleven: Regulation - Chapter Twelve: Marriage - Chapter Thirteen: A Life in Litigation - Chapter Fourteen: The Marconi Aura - Chapter Fifteen: A New World Order - Chapter Sixteen: On the Way to Somewhere - Chapter Seventeen: The Perfect Laureate - PART III THE PATRIOT - Chapter Eighteen: The Godsend - Chapter Nineteen: Signals of War - Chapter Twenty: Wireless and Disaster - Chapter Twenty-One: "The Marconi Scandal" - Chapter Twenty-Two: The Invisible Weapon - Chapter Twenty-Three: "L'eroe magico" - Chapter Twenty-Four: The Statesman - Chapter Twenty-Five: The Spark - PART IV THE OUTSIDER - Chapter Twenty-Six: The Master of the House - Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Beam Indenture - Chapter Twenty-Eight: Radio - Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Merger - cc Chapter Thirty: The Anchor - PART V THE CONFORMIST - Chapter Thirty-One: A Servant of the Regime - Chapter Thirty-Two: Science and Fascism - Chapter Thirty-Three: "Your Every Wish Is My Command" - Chapter Thirty-Four: Controlling His Legacy - Chapter Thirty-Five: The Heritage - Chapter Thirty-Six: He Only Cared About Wireless . . . - Postscript - Acknowledgements - Sources and Abbreviations - Notes - Bibliography - Index