The Telegraph from Below
Race, Labour and the Indo-European Telegraph Department 1862-1927
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4493720 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stephen J Rose (0000-0001-6267-640X, University of Greenwich, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 97 |
| Pages | 126-148 |
| Publication date | 2024-06-14 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History Workshop Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-4569 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/hwj/dbae009 |
| OpenAlex | W4403780424 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
Many historians have understood telegraph networks from above, as an instrumental technology of state building and globalisation. This article proposes a different perspective. Drawing on the labour of subalterns across the Indo-European Telegraph Department (IETD) in Iran, India, and the Persian Gulf in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it focuses on those ‘below’. Reorientating focus to the labour involved in operations, maintenance, and security of the network, the article connects the telegraph to the formation of racial taxonomies and workers resistance. In doing so, the network is revealed as an inescapably hybrid enterprise
Race (biology · Sociology · Telecommunications · Telegraphy · African history and culture studies · Engineering · Gender Studies
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |