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@macdougallPeopleNetworkPolitical2013 source

Title: @macdougallPeopleNetworkPolitical2013 date: 2023-03-09 type: reference project:

tags:: #memex2 #telephone projects:

Reference

MacDougall, R. 2013. The People’s Network: The Political Economy of the Telephone in the Gilded Age. Philadelphia, UNITED STATES: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Summary & Key Take Aways

In The People's Network(2013), MacDougall informs us of how Bell dominated the telephone industry in the late 1800s and early 1900s and the consequences surrounding it. He builds this argument by going over the three timeframes for Bell under three key leaders, Gardiner Hubbard, William Forbes, and Theodore Veil. MacDougall highlights these three key timeframes because it is the foundation of the modern telephone networks we see today and the backstory to why Bell is big in Canada and AT&T is a big corporation in America.

The first of the three is Gardiner Hubbard (linked because his backstory is cool), whose vision was a "telephone for the people," a telephone that was not exploited for profit, one that can be used freely by the people. The next is William Forbes, an autocrat who took over when the Bell Company was in dire need of funds, his whole goal was to milk the people for as much money as he could, the complete opposite of Hubbard's Vision. Finally, we have Theodore Vail he was ambitious, he wanted the whole world to be connected by one company. Vail could also be seen as a genius for his ideas. While with the Bell Company, he tried to sell as many telephones to as many people possible, even if it was not profitable in the slightest.

Ambition Business differences for the telephone Collapsing space time with the telephone privitizing the telephone segregation with telephone The alliance of Bell and Western Union Turnaround of Bell's Ideals