Coming to a Shelf Near You: The Telephone Gambit

This review from the Christmas Science Monitor caught my eye. Monitor reviewer Marjorie Kehe asks, "How often does a detective story upend history? Probably about as often as a science and technology journalist pens a page-turner." That writer is Seth Shulman and his book is titled The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret

Vital Stats

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton; (January 7, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0393062066
ISBN-13: 978-0393062069

From the Book Description

A gripping intrigue at the heart of one of the world's most important inventions.

While researching Alexander Graham Bell at MIT's Dibner Institute, Seth Shulman scrutinized Bell's journals and within them he found the smoking gun, a hint of deeply buried historical intrigue. Delving further, Shulman unearthed the surprising story behind the invention of the telephone: a tale of romance, corruption, and unchecked ambition.

Bell furtively—and illegally—copied part of Elisha Gray's invention in the race to secure what would become the most valuable U.S. patent ever issued. And afterward, as Bell's device led to the world's largest monopoly, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, he hid his invention's illicit beginnings. In The Telephone Gambit, Shulman challenges the reputation of an icon of invention, rocks the foundation of a corporate behemoth, and offers a probing meditation on how little we know about our own history.

Read Marjorie Kehe's review of this new book at Christian Science Monitor online.