ARPANET — Bunk History

Book cover for Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet

The Long View: Surveillance, the Internet, and Government Research

A new book says “the Internet was developed as a weapon and remains a weapon today.” Does the charge hold up?

by Eric Gade via Los Angeles Review of Books on June 28, 2018

Mark Zuckerberg

How the Internet Lost its Soul

After 50 years of networked communications, commercial interests have eclipsed the public good.

by Janet Abbate via Made By History on November 1, 2019

How Douglas Engelbart Invented the Future

Two decades before the personal computer, a shy engineer unveiled the tools that would drive the tech revolution.

by Valerie Landau via Smithsonian on January 3, 2018

The Internet Should Be a Public Good

The Internet was built by public institutions — so why is it controlled by private corporations?

by Ben Tarnoff via Jacobin on August 31, 2016

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

An oil rig on the ocean.

Spillovers from Oil Firms to U.S. Computing and Semiconductor Manufacturing

Smudging state–industry distinctions and retelling conventional narratives.

by Cyrus C. M. Mody via Reviews In American History on February 22, 2022

The cover of Black Software by Charlton D. McIlwain, depicting a raised fist against a green background.

Alternative Internets and Their Lost Histories

What has been gained and lost from overlooking histories about the wild heterogeneity of networks that existed for well over a century?

by Lori Emerson via Los Angeles Review of Books on April 12, 2021

How Silicon Valley Broke the Economy

The question of how to fix the tech industry is now inseparable from the question of how to fix late 20th century capitalism.

by Adrian Chen via The Nation on October 14, 2019

The Lines of Code That Changed Everything

Apollo 11, the JPEG, the first pop-up ad, and 33 other bits of software that have transformed our world.

by Thomas Haigh, Arthur Daemmrich, Mar Hicks, Charlton D. McIlwain, Chris Noessel, Molly Olmstead, Clive Thompson, Sara Wachter-Boettcher, Elena Botella, Ellen Stofan, Jamie Zawinski, Jane C. Hu, Lav Varschney, April Glaser, Charles Duan, Aaron Mak, Amanda Levendowski, Ethan Zuckerman, Nikki Stevens, David S. Levine, P. W. Singer, Ari Ezra Waldman, Rusty D. Pickens via Slate on October 14, 2019

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