by Tim Wu
First published 2010
Tim Wu examines how American information industries have repeatedly fallen under monopolistic control. He traces a pattern where new technologies begin as open platforms before ruthless entrepreneurs seize total dominance. The book profiles key figures like Theodore Vail, who built the Bell System into history's greatest information empire through Soviet-style central planning. David Sarnoff of NBC destroyed competitors and drove inventors to despair and suicide to protect his broadcast kingdom. Adolph Zukor transformed film technology from an accessible medium into Hollywood's exclusive domain. Wu shows how each medium followed this cycle: radio, telephone, television, and film all started free but ended up controlled by corporate powers. The author argues that government typically blessed these consolidations, stifling both innovation and free expression. Today's information giants like Apple, Google, and AT&T display similar monopolistic tendencies as they battle for Internet control. Wu warns that with our lives increasingly dependent on digital networks, this struggle will determine whether information remains free or falls under centralized corporate rule.
Genres: history, business, politics, non-fiction, technology, 21st-century
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-non-fiction, social-commentary
Setting: America
Period: 19th-century, 20th-century, 21st-century
384 pages · Hardcover · Knopf