Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!apple!limbo!taylor
From: wpg@mendel.acc.Virginia.EDU (William P. Gardner)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Communications Nets
Message-ID: <944@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Date: 3 Jul 90 17:45:45 GMT
Sender: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com
Organization: University of Virginia
Lines: 35
Approved: taylor@Limbo.Intuitive.Com

A while ago I posted a request for references to histories of
communications networks.  I received some very useful pointers as well
as several requests to share them.  Here are the ones I have found and
read and I strongly recommend them all.

- Chandler, A. (1977), "The visible hand.  The managerial revolution in 
  American business", Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

	A fascinating account of how the need to organize the railroad system, 
	among other causes, led to the formation of a managerial class.

- Eisenstein, E. (1968), Some conjectures about the impact of printing
  on Western society and thought: a preliminary report, "Journal of
  Modern History, 40", 3-56.

- Eisenstein, E. (1979), "The printing press as an agent of change.  Com-
  munications and cultural transformations in early-modern Europe" (Vols.
  1-2).  New York: Cambridge University Press.

	A frustrating writer who spends too much time lecturing her colleagues
	for ignoring her issues.  But she synthesizes a lot of information and
	poses deep questions about how printing changed intellectual life.

- Pool, I. de Sola (1983), "Technologies of freedom", Cambridge, MA: Harvard 
  University Press.

	The legal and political background and consequences of the 
	evolution of the American nets.

Now -- another question.  To my knowledge, none of the academic nets
allow commerce in documents (or anything else).  Does anyone know of an
official statement of policy from the BITNET people or from USENET (who
runs USENET, anyway?) that states and justifies this policy?

William Gardner