The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society

James R. Beniger

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674169867 ISBN 13: 9780674169869

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1989

Why do we find ourselves living in an Information Society? How did the collection, processing, and communication of information come to play an increasingly important role in advanced industrial countries relative to the roles of matter and energy? And why is this change recent--or is it? James Beniger traces the origin of the Information Society to major economic and business crises of the past century. In the United States, applications of steam power in the early 1800s brought a dramatic rise in the speed, volume, and complexity of industrial processes, making them difficult to control. Scores of problems arose: fatal train wrecks, misplacement of freight cars for months at a time, loss of shipments, inability to maintain high rates of inventory turnover. Inevitably the Industrial Revolution, with its ballooning use of energy to drive material processes, required a corresponding growth in the exploitation of information: "the Control Revolution." Between the 1840s and the 1920s came most of the important information-processing and communication technologies still in use today: telegraphy, modern bureaucracy. rotary power printing, the postage stamp, paper money, typewriter, telephone, punch-card processing, motion pictures, radio, and television. Beniger shows that more recent developments in microprocessors, computers, and telecommunications are only a smooth continuation of this "Control Revolution." Along the way he touches on many fascinating topics: why breakfast was invented, how trademarks came to be worth more than the companies that own them, why some employees wear uniforms, and whether time zones will always be necessary. The book is impressive not only for the breadth of its scholarship but also for the subtlety and force of its argument. It will be welcomed by sociologists, economists, historians of science and technology, and all curious in general.

Review:

As systems involving people and machines increase in size, complexity and speed of operation, they confront recurring problems of coherence and control... The contribution of The Control Revolution by James R. Beniger is to describe and analyze the range of methods modern societies use to keep things from falling apart... It argues that today's dependence on information technology has its origins in practical needs spawned by the Industrial Revolution... The book offers a skillful cross-disciplinary synthesis that draws on hundreds of scholarly studies in the history of technology, business history and social science... [A] challenging, highly readable work.--New York Times Book Review

Rich and fascinating... The book is thoroughly enjoyable reading, partly because the author has pulled the strands together from so many different fields with such obvious thoroughness... I know of no other source that provides such a rich cultural history of our field.--Information Processing & Managment

This book is designed to be the synthetic work on the 'Information Society' and its origins, and by all rights it will be. It is beautifully done and is built to last... Everything about the book is intelligent.--Critical Review

A masterly treatment of some of the most important developments in the making of modern society. Beniger's book will take its place alongside the four or five books of the past twenty years which have most influenced our understanding of current changes, not just in the United States but the industrial world as a whole.--Journal of American Studies

From the Back Cover:

'This book is designed to be the synthetic work on the 'Information Society' and its origins, and by all rights it will be. It is beautifully done and is built to last...Everything about the book is intelligent.' -Critical Review