Recommendations from our site
“I learned a lot about Alexander Graham Bell from this book because in my mind he was very much associated with the invention of the telephone. I was in Canada a few years ago and found myself in the town where the cable had arrived, and the first transatlantic call was made. It was all quite exciting, but I didn’t know about his relationship to deafness. He was surrounded by people who were deaf: his mother, his wife. It’s a very powerful story of how he went about technologically, politically and personally to enable people who were deaf to communicate through the use of this new contraption. As you’re reading this book, you’re applying the values of the 2020s to events that were no doubt wholly noble when they were being carried out, but with the benefit of hindsight, don’t look quite so great. That’s one of the aspects of the book that I found completely fascinating.” Read more...
The British Academy Book Prize: 2022 Shortlist
Philippe Sands, Lawyer
