As far as I know, there is no satisfactory book on text terminals (unless you are interested in antique terminals of the 1970's).
The "HANDBOOK ... " presents brief specifications of over 100 different models of antique terminals made in the early 1970's by over 60 different companies. It also explains how they work physically but incorrectly shows a diagram for a CRT which uses electrostatic deflection of the electron beam (p. 36). Terminals actually used magnetic deflection (even in the 1970's). This book explains a number of advanced technical concepts such as "random scan" and "color penetration principle".
The "COMMUNICATING ... " book in contrast to the "Handbook ... " ignores the physical and electronic details of terminals. It has an entire chapter explaining binary numbers (which is not needed in a book on terminals since this information is widely available elsewhere). It seems to mostly cover old IBM terminals (mainly the 3270) in block and synchronous modes of operation. It's of little use for the commonly used ANSI terminals used today on Unix-like systems. Although it does discuss them a little it doesn't show the various wiring schemes used to connect them to serial ports.
These chapters cover almost nothing about the terminals themselves and their capabilities. Rather, these chapters are mostly about how to set up the computer (and its terminal driver) to work with terminals. Due to the differences of different Unix-like systems, much of the information does not not apply to Linux.
The "UNIX POWER TOOLS" book has 3 short chapters on text terminals. It covers less ground than this HOWTO but gives more examples to help you.
The "ADVANCED PROGRAMMING ... " Chapter 11 covers only the device driver included in the operating system to deal with terminals. It explains the parameters one gives to the stty command to configure the terminal.
The "ESSENTIAL SYSTEM ..." book's chapter has more about terminals than modems. It seems well written.
The configuration of the host computer for terminals for non-Linux operating systems is usually significantly different than for Linux. Here are some links to on-line manuals for Unix-like systems.