The Control Revolution

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Why do we live in an Information Society? What led to the increasing importance of information collection, processing, and communication in advanced industrial nations compared to matter and energy? James Beniger traces this evolution to significant economic and business crises over the past century. In the early 1800s, steam power dramatically increased the speed and complexity of industrial processes in the United States, leading to challenges such as train wrecks, misplaced freight, and inventory issues. The Industrial Revolution's reliance on energy necessitated a parallel growth in information management, termed "the Control Revolution." From the 1840s to the 1920s, key information-processing and communication technologies emerged, including telegraphy, modern bureaucracy, rotary printing, postage stamps, paper money, typewriters, telephones, punch-card processing, motion pictures, radio, and television. Beniger argues that recent advancements in microprocessors, computers, and telecommunications are a continuation of this revolution. He explores intriguing topics such as the invention of breakfast, the value of trademarks, employee uniforms, and the future of time zones. The book is notable for its scholarly breadth and the subtlety of its arguments, appealing to sociologists, economists, historians of science and technology, and the intellectually curious.