"In 1883, the Brotherhood of Telegraphers, a nationwide union affiliated with the Knights of Labor, began what proved to be an unsuccessful strike against Western Union. The strike was well publicized, for it pitted a new group of middle-class employees against an enormous corporation headed by Jay Gould. Using the strike as a starting point, [the author] has written a social history of American telegraphy in the late nineteenth century, exploring the backgrounds, values, and experiences of the men and women who worked as operators."--Page 4 of cover.