The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires

The Rise and Fall of Information Empires

384 pages

Published May 11, 2010 by Knopf.

ISBN:
9780307269935

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4 stars (1 review)

In this age of an open Internet, it is easy to forget that every American information industry, beginning with the telephone, has eventually been taken captive by some ruthless monopoly or cartel. With all our media now traveling a single network, an unprecedented potential is building for centralized control over what Americans see and hear. Could history repeat itself with the next industrial consolidation? Could the Internet—the entire flow of American information—come to be ruled by one corporate leviathan in possession of “the master switch”? That is the big question of Tim Wu’s pathbreaking book.

As Wu’s sweeping history shows, each of the new media of the twentieth century—radio, telephone, television, and film—was born free and open. Each invited unrestricted use and enterprising experiment until some would-be mogul battled his way to total domination. Here are stories of an uncommon will to power, the power over information: Adolph Zukor, who …

3 editions

Everything old is new again.

4 stars

If you love reading about "enshittification," buckle in tight, because you're gonna LOVE The Cycle.

Tim Wu presents a comprehensive history of the rise and fall of information industries in the U.S., and illustrates again and again how unchecked corporate power strangles innovation and impedes progress at every turn. He illustrates his theory of "The Cycle" (in which open systems consolidate and then choke competition and disruption) with the development of film, radio, television, and telephone industries. (Reading this book will certainly make you want to dig up some dead white guys and punch them in the face.)

Since this book was published in 2010, I was a little worried that it would be frustratingly out of date. It's not; the history is solid, his theories are good. But towards the end I definitely had a sinking feeling in my stomach while reading. Wu proposes that the nature of the …