LEADER 04618nam 2200769 450 001 9910464941303321 005 20211013221503.0 010 $a0-8122-0908-7 024 7 $a10.9783/9780812209082 035 $a(CKB)3710000000072477 035 $a(OCoLC)865157735 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10811130 035 $a(SSID)ssj0001179596 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11976390 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001179596 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)11181690 035 $a(PQKB)11143418 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3442309 035 $a(OCoLC)869435465 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse27246 035 $a(DE-B1597)449768 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780812209082 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3442309 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10811130 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL682544 035 $a(EXLCZ)993710000000072477 100 $a20130807h20142014 uy| 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcnu|||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe people's network $ethe political economy of the telephone in the Gilded Age /$fRobert MacDougall 205 $aFirst edition. 210 1$aPhiladelphia :$cUniversity of Pennsylvania Press,$d[2014] 210 4$dİ2014 215 $a1 online resource (341 p.) 225 0 $aAmerican Business, Politics, and Society 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 0 $a1-322-51262-0 311 0 $a0-8122-4569-5 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tIntroduction. A Fight with an Octopus --$tChapter 1. All Telephones Are Local --$tChapter 2. Visions of Telephony --$tChapter 3. Unnatural Monopoly --$tChapter 4. The Independent Alternative --$tChapter 5. The Politics of Scale --$tChapter 6. The System Gospel --$tConclusion. Return to Middletown --$tNotes --$tIndex --$tAcknowledgments 330 $aThe Bell System dominated telecommunications in the United States and Canada for most of the twentieth century, but its monopoly was not inevitable. In the decades around 1900, ordinary citizens?farmers, doctors, small-town entrepreneurs?established tens of thousands of independent telephone systems, stringing their own wires to bring this new technology to the people. Managed by opportunists and idealists alike, these small businesses were motivated not only by profit but also by the promise of open communication as a weapon against monopoly capital and for protection of regional autonomy. As the Bell empire grew, independents fought fiercely to retain control of their local networks and companies?a struggle with an emerging corporate giant that has been almost entirely forgotten. The People's Network reconstructs the story of the telephone's contentious beginnings, exploring the interplay of political economy, business strategy, and social practice in the creation of modern North American telecommunications. Drawing from government documents in the United States and Canada, independent telephone journals and publications, and the archives of regional Bell operating companies and their rivals, Robert MacDougall locates the national debates over the meaning, use, and organization of the telephone industry as a turning point in the history of information networks. The competing businesses represented dueling political philosophies: regional versus national identity and local versus centralized power. Although independent telephone companies did not win their fight with big business, they fundamentally changed the way telecommunications were conceived. 410 0$aAmerican business, politics, and society. 606 $aTelephone$zUnited States$xHistory$y20th century 606 $aTelephone$zCanada$xHistory$y20th century 606 $aTelephone companies$zUnited States$xHistory$y20th century 606 $aTelephone companies$zCanada$xHistory$y20th century 606 $aTelephone$xGovernment policy$zUnited States$xHistory$y20th century 606 $aTelephone$xGovernment policy$zCanada$xHistory$y20th century 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aTelephone$xHistory 615 0$aTelephone$xHistory 615 0$aTelephone companies$xHistory 615 0$aTelephone companies$xHistory 615 0$aTelephone$xGovernment policy$xHistory 615 0$aTelephone$xGovernment policy$xHistory 676 $a384.60973/09041 700 $aMacDougall$b Robert$f1971-$01056491 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910464941303321 996 $aThe people's network$92490883 997 $aUNINA