The wired nation continent

How are Australians to retain their cultural identity in a global communication environment - a wired world - in which the information superhighway eliminates national boundaries? The Wired Nation Continent: The Communication Revolution and Federating Australia provides a fresh historical slant on the contemporary communication revolution and the Australian Government's constitutional powers in this area. As Australians prepare to celebrate the centenary of federation, the book highlights the previously neglected theme of the uniting of the colonies and the place of telegraphic, postal, and press communication in that process. Based on extensive research carried out in all Australian mainland states and territories, this book reveals how widely communication issues were debated in the nineteenth century. It provides a historical perspective on how the Australian Government acquired its constitutional powers over telecommunications and the electronic media - major growth industries in the contemporary information society. The book also contributes to comparative communication history, and introduces the concepts of 'technological federalism' and 'technological nationalism'. The Wired Nation Continent adds much to our understanding of nineteenth-century Australian history and will be of interest to those involved in the areas of communication and culture, constitutional law, information technology, history, politics, and the electronic media.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.