Description
Book SynopsisThe untold story about how the internet became social, and why this matters for its future
Trade ReviewWinner of the 2023 Nancy Baym Annual Book Award, sponsored by the Association of Internet Researchers
Winner of the 2023 Computer History Museum prize, sponsored from SIGCIS.
“Whether you’re reading this for a nostalgic romp or to understand the dawn of the internet,
The Modem World will delight you with tales of BBS culture and shed light on how the decisions of the past shape our current networked world.”—danah boyd, author of
It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens“
The Modem World brings back to life a lost world of electronic communications, in the effervescent years before the Internet, World Wide Web, and the duopoly of Facebook and Google. Fascinating reading.”—Paul E. Ceruzzi, curator emeritus, Smithsonian Institution
“Everyone loves a good origin story, especially a forgotten one.
The Modem World offers an overlooked history of the Internet—it’s full of insights into how we got here, and where we could have gone instead. Deeply empathetic and gently brilliant.”—Tarleton Gillespie, author of
Custodians of the Internet
