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Poster for "Dr. Strangelove"

Hotline Suspense

The entire plot of Stanley Kubrick's Cold War satire turns around getting people on the phone.
by Devin Short via Contingent on March 19, 2022
A drawing of two diamonds

Last Pole

The author goes looking for the history of telecommunication, and is left sitting in the slim shadow of a lightning rod, listening to a voice from beyond the grave.
by Julian Chehirian via The Public Domain Review on May 27, 2020

Why No One Answers Their Phone Anymore

Homeowners used to rush to pick up the phone. What happened?
by Alexis C. Madrigal via The Atlantic on May 31, 2018
Telephone from 1896

Want to Guess When the First Telephone Appeared in Literature?

It's probably further back than you think.
by Mark Lasswell via Weekly Standard on December 21, 2017
Photograph of a soldier using a telephone in the field.

A History of Wire-Tapping

Meyer Berger’s 1938 look at the technology, history, and culture of eavesdropping, from the wiretapping of Dutch Schulz to the invention of the Speak-O-Phone.
by Meyer Berger via The New Yorker on June 11, 1938
Political cartoon by Thomas Nast, depicting Grover Cleveland listening to election news on a telephone.

Mark Twain Eavesdrops

"I touched the bell and this talk ensued."
by Mark Twain via The Atlantic on June 1, 1880
Two people calling on AT&T PicturePhone.

A Prehistory of Zoom

Concerns about privacy and pressures regarding the physical appearance of women and their homes contributed to the failure of AT&T’s 1960s Picturephone.
by Livia Gershon, Hannah Spaulding via JSTOR Daily on June 29, 2024
Henry Kissinger in the table in the White House situation room.

Kissinger, Me, and the Lies of the Master

‘Off off the record’ with the man who secretly taped our telephone calls.
by Seymour M. Hersh via seymourhersh.substack on December 6, 2023
Women deejays at Shyvers Multiphone studio in the Seattle-Tacoma area.

The First Music Streaming Service

In the 1930s, a Seattle entrepreneur created a successful analog streaming platform—and ran it out of a drugstore.
by Ted Gioia via The Honest Broker on April 4, 2022
A still from the 1955 film 'Wiretapper.' The still depicts a man wearing headphones and touching a wire.

When New York City was a Wiretapper’s Dream

Eavesdropping flourished after WWII, aided by legal loopholes, clever hacks, and “private ears”.
by Brian Hochman via IEEE Spectrum on March 25, 2022
Logo of AT&T used from 1969-1982.

The Breakup of "Ma Bell": United States v. AT&T

The US government broke up AT&T's monopoly over the telecom industry through an antitrust case in 1984, leading to a transformation of communication.
by Jake Kobrick via Federal Judicial Center on February 1, 2022
Model posing with the original Motorola cellphone

The First Cellphone: Discover Motorola’s DynaTAC 8000X, a 2-Pound Brick Priced at $3,995

We get the culture our technology permits, and in the 21st century no technological development has changed culture like that of the smartphone.
by Colin Marshall via Open Culture on May 20, 2021
Women in the Red Cross posing for a picture

Rampaging Invisible Killer Stalks the Entire Country!

Influenza pandemic of 1918 in the United States.
by Ashley Cuffia via Library of Congress on June 1, 2020

How a Historian Uncovered Ronald Reagan’s Racist Remarks to Richard Nixon

In a taped call with Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan described the African delegates to the United Nations in luridly racist terms.
by Timothy Naftali, Isaac Chotiner via The New Yorker on August 2, 2019

A Brief History of Surveillance in America

With wiretapping in the headlines and smart speakers in millions of homes, a look back to the early days of eavesdropping.
by Brian Hochman, April White via Smithsonian on March 22, 2018

Eavesdropping on Roy Cohn and Donald Trump

Remembering the switchboard operator who listened in on Cohn’s calls with Nancy Reagan, Gloria Vanderbilt, Carlo Gambino, and Trump.
by Marcus Baram via The New Yorker on April 14, 2017

The Love of Monopoly

Why did the U.S. allow its national communications markets to be run by expansive monopolists?
by Tim Wu via The New Republic on May 19, 2011
The newsroom of the Mobile Press-Register, ca. 1982.

Journalists and the “Origin Story” of Working from Home

Journalists helped to pioneer what would eventually result in our mobile world.
by Will Mari, Juliette De Maeyer via The Saturday Evening Post on October 14, 2024
A computer, business documents, envelope, and a broadcast tower.

How Tech Giants Make History

AT&T’s early leaders used PR to sway public opinion, casting their monopoly as a public service and obscuring its political roots.
by Richard R. John via Pro-Market on October 10, 2024
Banksy's Spy Booth depicting 3 spies listening in to a phone booth.

How the Drug War Convinced America to Wiretap the Digital Revolution

How the FBI's doomed attempt to stop criminal activity conducted via mobile phones shaped the regime of ubiquitous backdoor surveillance under which we live today.
by Brian Hochman via Humanities on January 6, 2023
Black and white picture of J. Edgar Hoover, sitting at a desk, 1932.

The FBI and the Madams

J. Edgar Hoover saw the political effectiveness of cracking down on elite brothel madams—but not their clients—in New York City.
by Matthew Wills, Jessica Pliley via JSTOR Daily on November 5, 2022
Image of a woman sitting in front of the computer

The Intimate and Interconnected History of the Internet

A new book offers a picture of an early Internet defined by community, experimentation, and lack of privacy. 
by Kevin Driscoll, Jacob Bruggeman via The Nation on October 14, 2022

Could Internet Culture Be Different?

Kevin Driscoll’s study of early Internet communities contains a vision for a less hostile and homogenous future of social networking.
by Ethan Zuckerman via New York Review of Books on May 19, 2022
Person making call in telephone booth.

The Making of the Surveillance State

The public widely opposed wiretapping until the 1970s. What changed?
by Andrew Lanham via The New Republic on April 21, 2022
Collage of FSA and OWI photographs
partner

Photogrammar

A web-based visualization platform for exploring the 170,000 photos taken by U.S. government agencies during the Great Depression.
by Lauren Tilton, Taylor Arnold via American Panorama on February 10, 2021
multicolor illustration of Gmail icons, iMessage text boxes, reply arrows, and refresh arrows.

Was E-mail a Mistake?

Digital messaging was supposed to make our work lives easier and more efficient, but the math suggests that meetings might be better.
by Cal Newport via The New Yorker on August 6, 2019

A Brief History of Porn on the Internet

Pornographers were in many ways the innovators who fueled the rise of the internet as we know it.
by David Kushner via Wired on April 9, 2019

Mail-Order Magazines Did More Than Just Sell Things

The cheap monthly publications that flooded rural homes offered more than just advertising—they also provided companionship.
by Lorraine Boissoneault via Smithsonian on January 18, 2018

How the FCC's Net Neutrality Plan Breaks With 50 Years of History

The scholar who coined the phrase "net neutrality" explains why the agency's latest move represents such a radical break.
by Tim Wu via Wired on December 6, 2017
The logout screen for "The Cave," the author's 1990s-era bulletin board system.

The Lost Civilization of Dial-Up Bulletin Board Systems

A former systems operator logs back in to the original computer-based social network.
by Benj Edwards via The Atlantic on November 4, 2016
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