[Air-L] Internet Historiography

[Andrew Russell]

Hi Adam - 

For your first question, I presented a paper last fall called "Histories of Networking vs. the History of the Internet" that took political misinterpretations of the Internet's history (by Steven Johnson and Gordon Crovitz) as a point of departure.  You can find it at http://arussell.org/papers/russell-SIGCIS-2012.pdf.  In late 2013 Cambridge University Press will publish my book, _An Open World: History, Ideology, and Network Standards_ which has some critical comments on the historiography of the Internet, although perhaps not quite in the way you have framed it.

On the second question, it's tough to know where to start since your question is one of the major questions that scholars in STS, the history of technology, and business history have been pursuing for decades (assuming you mean New Deal-style liberalism, as we call it in the US): Sheila Jasanoff, Langdon Winner, Richard John, Steve Usselman, Lou Galambos, Brian Balogh, Michael Dennis, Dominique Tobbell, etc.  If you mean American federal policies that have promoted technological innovation, Norberg & O'Neill's "Transforming Computer Technology" has a richly detailed history of ARPA's IPTO - which sounds directly on point for you.

I'm happy to be more specific or otherwise share cites, etc if you think it would be helpful; and in any case please let us know when you finish what you're working on!

Cheers,

Andy



On May 16, 2013, at 12:29 PM, Adam Fish <rawbird at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear AOIRers,
> 
> Anybody know of articles or books analysing 1) the political historiography
> of the internet. Who has criticized the historiography of the internet as
> being written for political gain?
> 
> Secondly, any research on 2) the space shared by classic liberalism,
> technology, and history?
> 
> I am writing this piece on how Obama’s statement on “the internet… you
> didn’t build that,” celebrating social liberal federal investments in
> technology, has been (mis)interpreted by various political actors.
> 
> Any leads?
> 
> Best,
> 
> 
> Adam Fish, PhD
> 
> Media and Cultural Studies
> 
> Department of Sociology
> 
> Lancaster University, UK
> 
> LA1 4YT
> 
> p. 01524592699
> 
> a.fish2 at lancaster.ac.uk
> 
> @mediacultures, mediacultures.org
> 
> http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/people/adam-fish(10a5067e-a828-497b-95ae-e35ed07f9ba1).html
> 


---------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D.
Director, Program in Science & Technology Studies
Assistant Professor, History
College of Arts & Letters
Stevens Institute of Technology
Hoboken, New Jersey 07030

t. 201-216-5400
f. 201-216-8245
arussell at stevens.edu
http://www.stevens.edu/cal/sts
http://www.arussell.org