cather 1918 novel "my antonia" pick the book addresses the immigrant experience in women's issues of the time. our guest is melissa homestead english professor at the university of nebraska lincoln. watch c-span's encore and presentation of "books that shaped america" weeknights at nine eastern on c-span or go to c-span.org/ c-span.org/"books that shaped america" to learn more about each book featured. >> weekends on c-span2 are an intellectual feast. every saturday american history tv documents america's stories, and on sundays booktv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. funding for c-span2 comes on the television companies and more including charter communication communications. >> charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers, and we are just getting started building 100,000 miles of new

infrastructure to reach those who need it most. >> charter communications along with these television companies supports c-span2 as a public service. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> even before the familiar telegraph key came this first morse instrument whose sparks of fire to the world of communication. >> sure,s western union was boos and saddles, a golden spike in a railroad tie, swinging wires and the growing pains of a great nation. but everybody knows that commerce union get a job. the telegraph wire tied the cattle market the kansas to the tables of the east. hitch the cotton mills the new england to the southern plantations and the new york cutting tables. ofof the methods of medication were slow and tedious. the telegraph was the only means of rapid communication. it was direct, it was fast. it kept pace with the nation's expanding frontiers.

>> what do you read? what do you read? they are all late. they are all late. what do you read? what your paper, mr.? there you are. >> hey, what's the best? >> what's what? >> blank pages. where's the news? >> what do you know? they are all blank. >> sorry joe, sorry joe's customer. it wouldn't have happened if we had not arranged it. there's plenty of news today but it still in the making. >> all right, we will send that out right away. >> i don't mean to do personal, sir, but congratulations. >> thanks. >> did you mean to say these twins were boys or girls? >> how could i have forgotten

that?u they are boys. spread you want to sit as a regular telegram of course? >> sure. this is new. >> who else would like to get the good news? >> this goes about eight different people. i have a lot more writing to do here. >> that won't be necessary. you just put downst your list of addresses and we will see that they all get the message. >> swell. >> sure, fred brown, twinsn are news. western union is about to make it official. and while you think of all the people who should know about alice and the twins come hundreds of other telegrams are being sent and received in other ways in the ten block business area around you. >> high above the city a busy executive received a telegram live desk facts, a compact telegraph machine that operates via facsimile, and brings message transmission right to his desk.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> he places his reply on the cylinder, and with a push of a button, the reply goes direct to western union in his own handwriting. an ultramodern telegraph method that is close to magic. 50 stories down, western union serves another man whose job demands fast and accurate alcommunication. >> hello, western union. i would like to send a telegram. jl roberts, thompkins structural steel company. templeton ohio. construction here ahead of schedule. urgent you wire immediately,

earliest arrival structural steel. >> while urgent words feed an engineer to his home office, a steady flow of words lashes to western union from the communications room of a large business firm. a battery of teleprinters handled swiftly the massive urgent detail behind the daily operations of the major business. to save time, to pack more hours into theay day, to get on fast, orderly record in many details of the busy enterprise. >> no less important is telegraph service to the smaller business whose need for rapid key medications is well served by the familiar call box. at the turn of a candle the summons arrives at the branch office recorded on tape. the experienced clerk knows at a glance where the call originated and dispatches a messenger to the customer was telegraphing an order for a 20-ton crane. but all the while people come and go in the telegraph of of the neighborhood.

>> say, how does this sound? the crowd surprise charlie in big ten? short of cash. 25 would help. please telegraph in care of western union. thanks. >> thank you very much. we will rush these out right away. and good luck. >> thanks. >> it's a typical day at western union, behind the counter mechanical nerds of the system change words to holes on tape and the holes on tape to electrical impulses speeding over the wires. here is a urgent order for the 20-ton crane. >> to the western union operator, impartial and a purse with sending an almost endless flow of words, the contrast between six-pound babies and 20-ton cranes passersby almost without notice. now the operators start.

a quick tap on the keyboard and another, punch the key signals that will guide the message automatically to its destination. now it's gone. already arriving at the syracuse. high-speed message center in the territory of which telegram rigid and a link in the chain of mechanized centers throughout the country. good news travels fast, and with the speed of light this good news now inbe syracuse is automatically being flashed onward to st. louis, message and are for the delivery office. kind told by the two key signals punched in new york, swiftly, accurately, practically nonstop. along with thousands of other telegrams crossing through these wires, flashing through an round-the-clock succession. and now over the high-speed transmitter the message appears before the operator in st. louis, on both credit and perforated tape.

>> as it arrives she knows the destination and click, with a push of a button, the words are on their way to cumberland missouri. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> here they are arriving in printed form buddy to be come to doubt the familiar yellow blank, have group of words announcing a double blessing to waitingdp grandparents. >> yes, sir, twins six-pound each. alice doing fine. think i'll recover. love, fred. it seemed to take longer to tell than it m takes to do. his passage of the message by western union. at the very same time we follow this message, the order for the

20-ton crane has reached its final destination. preston california thousands of miles farther away. reached it and already delivered. delivered. because distance means nothing when it's at the end of a telegraph circuit. the sailors request for sure leave money from dad, gone. off at the same type as a telegrams about six-pound twins and 20-ton cranes. delivered in maryland by one of western unions newest developments, tell a card, a modern message center on wheels which receive telegrams by radio and facsimile cruising and outlying areas. virtually a telegraph center at the doorstep. and the less time than would imagine that sailor will have the money he wants the speed magic of a telegraphic money order. this is a network of interconnected high-speed message centers linking together the best western union system from coast to coast.

and from the great major message centers bring a multitude of connecting circus directly linking thousands of towns and cities, large and small, throughout our country with its vast, older modern telegraph system come to find his passes in the world. yes, wee call it speedway for words. a speedwayy extending far and wide within our shores and even beyond to and from any part of the globe. meanwhile, a typical day continues from babies to butter, the supermarket chain once 500 cases of butter now at the market price now. trained fingers fly over the keyboard. the tape closese instantly the order is thatat it is a great automatic network. in a matter of minutes, the butter or is on a for a large produce exchange. 70 million housewives are concerned with every move in this marketplace, for the price tags of the nation's grocery shelves are determined here.

500 cases, 95. the sale goes up on the big board and over the western union circuits the transaction flash and instantly to produce grows and chippers across the land. in every type of marketplace from modern to bonds, western union records the nation's since of values. to provide service to as many as possible, today's western union riches of the american people in different ways. those in small communities may know western union service through its agencies and railway stations like this. or a young lady and her meet me telegram. the busy housewife send a greeting or congratulation message may call for telegraph service and simply say charger to my phone, please. a harried man who wants to talk the away his telegram and get going since a a reservation telegram from a contingent direct calling box cabinet.

the late traveler who find just day too short for all his business telegraph for a morning appointment, calling on western union at his hotelel to work for him while he rests. and here the occasional use of telegrams who lives in communities away from the center of things knows the dependable local drugstore as western unions representation. to millions of sports fans,, western union is the answer to what's the score? wherever the bat cracks against the ball, wherever a gridiron greats collide, wherever they time punches lie, western union is as much a part of the sports scene as the umpires and referees. whatever the news, wherever it happens, western union speeds of the story to its national press centers serving the world's top newspapers with lightning fast

reports due to press deadlines. whatever disaster strikes can western union is on the job to restore contact, bring word to and from the stricken, and partial relief for the hungry and homeless. in scores of crises in the nation is great, theee compromie of western union have been worth their weight in gold. of all the many places western union circe merkin people, it is perhaps here where reps to does speak and act for 159 citizens that western union serves of the greatest number. in the senate pressroom, correspondence compile the daily hardcopy record of significant speeches, , ballots, legislation and committee action there almost as soon as it happens through on the spot facilities, western union delivers this record different pages in the free world. but that are more than outgoing stories. western union in washington is a funnel into which americans pour their messages of support or protest to the leaders.

the opinions of grass-roots voters who rightly believe that the elected man is the public servant. when great issues are at stake,, the people speak their minds and a flood of telegrams that make total tens of thousands in 24 hours.an through its high-speed sinners and of the facilities can western union stand ready to carry far greater traffic than the nation demands. one section of its system operates by microwave beam and transmission. from towers like this in washington, more than 2000 telegrams can bemu sent and received simultaneously on oa single radio beam, traveling with the speed of light to other times strategically located along the routes here how else does western union of today serve? specially designed bye e more systems where there's a a neer two medications and volumesu suh as the private bank wire, interconnecting 188 thanks in 54 cities. .. network.

here is an outstanding example of modern telegraphy serving the nation great industries. the u.s. western union does more than serve the individual 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at all times. this battery of tele printers presents a prominent record of the origin and destination of every message exchanged over the private wire system. contracts, information, instructions, purchase orders, financial transactions. not one detail has been left in the air file in memory or left to chance. it's all in black and white. in the right. in the formal the telegraphic close to realistic army and air force used medicines for the

operations augmented by service personality. by western union. hey there. all here a all late what era? they're all hey, hey, hey. what are you. hi, joe. hi. yeah, that's more like it, joe it got close. yeah, i can't figure out at last decision. what? break and break, i guess it's all there now. all right. the things that happened to people are things that people made to happen. it was just one blank space. and this addition of a paper that will be filled in the next edition, because the story is happening right now, a reporter is taking notes in the research center of western union. and what he is looking at will make the story that will build

last empty space. and the newspaper. the story is a familiar one to western union, a new to the reporter. it's the story of an endless search for improve facilities to serve the communications needs of america. the news peg of the story is one of the finds of that search high speed facsimile, transmission and reception of both words and pictures in a matter of seconds. 3500 words are said and received. here is a look into the future of communications. a long way from the early that clapped out data and messages here is modern telegraphy at work, sending and receiving in facsimile, placing all of a vast system at the user's elbow. here is telegraphy today, hurtling millions of words

across of miles automatically guided and controlled by the magic brain of an almost infallible system. speeding messages to destinations with just the push of a button to better serve america everywhere, to bring distant friends and business customers within arm's reach to the swiftness of a yellow bike along the way from the old hand to hand, relay from point to point, slow and at the mercy of human error. here is the thin white ribbon of words unchangeable, accurate, moving the message it carries lightning, fast, legible of assemblers brought actual record of what has been fed. here is telegraphy on wheels roaming the streets of outlying districts to bring telegraph service right to the front door. the radio beam tower and its

amazing capacity of 2000 telegrams at a time on a single radio beam. that's a long way from. the one telegram on one wire of a century ago from this telegraphs center of the world headquarters of western union in new york comes a telegram. a telegram for america. one union is proud of its record through the first hundred years, a record of service and progress, which in the needs of today and plans for tomorrow, keeps pace with a tempo of fast moving age. ♪♪ books that shaped america. c-span partner with the library congress explore pieces of literature and a profound impact

in our country. tonight will feature 1918 novel, the book addresses the immigrant experience and women's issues of the time. watch he spends encore presentation of books that shaped america weeknights o'clock eastern on c-span will go to c-span.org/books that shaped america and learn more about each books features. ♪♪ >> american history tv saturday on c-span2, exploring people and events that tell the american story. 5:45 p.m. eastern, a look of the-evolving legacy of the father of the atomic bulb washington post reporter and department of energy provider

9:30 p.m. eastern on the presidency, a lifelong project of gerald ford and carter after they walk the white house. exploring the american story, watch american history tv satellite on c-span2n plentiful schedule on your program guide will watch online anytime c-span.org/history. ♪♪ ♪♪ american history tv documents america stories and solicit book tv brings the latest and nonfiction books and authors. funding for c-span2 from these television companies and more. ♪♪