Fans pick 100 books like Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World

By Jack Goldsmith, Tim Wu,

Here are 100 books that Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World fans have personally recommended if you like Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet

Michael Belfiore Author Of The Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, from the Internet to Artificial Limbs

From my list on DARPA, America’s mad scientist agency.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by the power of technology to make the world a better place since I read Robert A. Heinlein’s Rocket Ship Galileo at the age of six. I was born in 1969, the year of the first crewed moon landing and the first connection on ARPANET, the network that started the internet. Space, technology, and the future have always been central to my career as a writer. I began investigating DARPA while writing a book on commercial spaceflight, was amazed by the breadth of technologies the agency helped launch and made it the topic of my next book.

Michael's book list on DARPA, America’s mad scientist agency

Michael Belfiore Why did Michael love this book?

If you want an introduction to DARPA and how it has managed to play such an outsize role in the creation of the technologies of the future, start with this book on its best-known and most influential project, ARPANET. ARPANET went online way back in 1969, when, for the very first time, two computers of disparate types connected over a dedicated phone line to exchange data.

This book tells the story of how the project came together and how it birthed the internet, offering a book-length case study of how DARPA creates wizardry on a relative shoestring. There are lots of great details here, such as the poor soul who kept getting harassed by one of the first dial-up modems calling the wrong number. 

By Katie Hafner, Matthew Lyon,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Where Wizards Stay Up Late as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the 1960s, when computers were regarded as giant calculators, J.C.R. Licklider at MIT saw them as the ultimate communication device. With Defence Department funds, he and a band of computer whizzes began work on a nationwide network of computers. This is an account of their daring adventure.


Book cover of Technologies of Freedom

Raphael Cohen-Almagor Author Of Confronting the Internet's Dark Side: Moral and Social Responsibility on the Free Highway

From my list on the internet's history, development, and challenges.

Why am I passionate about this?

Raphael Cohen-Almagor, DPhil, St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, is Professor of Politics, Olof Palme Visiting Professor, Lund University, Founding Director of the Middle East Study Centre, University of Hull, and Global Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Raphael taught, inter alia, at Oxford (UK), Jerusalem, Haifa (Israel), UCLA, Johns Hopkins (USA), and Nirma University (India). With more than 300 publications, Raphael has published extensively in the field of political philosophy, including Liberal Democracy and the Limits of Tolerance; Challenges to Democracy; The Right to Die with Dignity; The Scope of Tolerance; Confronting the Internet's Dark Side; Just, Reasonable Multiculturalism, and The Republic, Secularism and Security: France versus the Burqa and the Niqab.

Raphael's book list on the internet's history, development, and challenges

Raphael Cohen-Almagor Why did Raphael love this book?

This is a classic. The book provides an early assessment of the impact of new communications tools on freedom of expression. Pool observed how electronic networks were emerging and transforming the nature of print, arguing that we need to learn how to live with technology and make the most of it. Electronic technologies, Pool envisaged, will become the dominant mode of communication. Pool further envisaged that electronic technology would allow a great degree of diversity, more knowledge, easier access, and freer speech. He provided a lucid and perceptive analysis of the relation of American law to technology and its regulation. Pool was concerned with the negative consequences of new technology and feared its excessive regulation. It is not computers but policy that threatens freedom, he warned. This seminal work encapsulates many of the questions we face today. The challenges Pool described came to life as the pressures on government to…

By Ithiel de Sola Pool,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Technologies of Freedom as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

How can we preserve free speech in an electronic age? In a masterly synthesis of history, law, and technology, Ithiel de Sola Pool analyzes the confrontation between the regulators of the new communications technology and the First Amendment.


Book cover of The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society

Raphael Cohen-Almagor Author Of Confronting the Internet's Dark Side: Moral and Social Responsibility on the Free Highway

From my list on the internet's history, development, and challenges.

Why am I passionate about this?

Raphael Cohen-Almagor, DPhil, St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, is Professor of Politics, Olof Palme Visiting Professor, Lund University, Founding Director of the Middle East Study Centre, University of Hull, and Global Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Raphael taught, inter alia, at Oxford (UK), Jerusalem, Haifa (Israel), UCLA, Johns Hopkins (USA), and Nirma University (India). With more than 300 publications, Raphael has published extensively in the field of political philosophy, including Liberal Democracy and the Limits of Tolerance; Challenges to Democracy; The Right to Die with Dignity; The Scope of Tolerance; Confronting the Internet's Dark Side; Just, Reasonable Multiculturalism, and The Republic, Secularism and Security: France versus the Burqa and the Niqab.

Raphael's book list on the internet's history, development, and challenges

Raphael Cohen-Almagor Why did Raphael love this book?

This book analyzes the impact of new technology on society. Castells shows that the internet has become the backbone of modern economy and business, creating a global network society. Imagination is instigating and enabling tremendous changes in every aspect of life. But many of us do not fully grasp the potential of new technology. To make the most of this modern galaxy, we need to understand how it operates, its logic, its benefits, and constraints, and how to manage it effectively. Castells argues that modern communication enables control but it also enables freedom. It is the role of government and organisations to see that the internet is developed and used in ways that are consistent with a social order in which people are enabled to become responsible human beings. In this edifying and quite accessible book, Castells explains the galaxy of networks, how it began, how it shapes new and…

By Manuel Castells,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Internet Galaxy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Web has been with us for less than a decade. The popular and commercial diffusion of the Internet has been extraordinary - instigating and enabling changes in virtually every area of human activity and society. We have new systems of communication, new businesses, new media and sources of information, new forms of political and cultural expression, new forms of teaching and learning, and new communities.

But how much do we know about the Internet - its history, its technology, its culture, and its uses? What are its implications for the business world and society at large? The diffusion has…


Book cover of Media Ethics and Global Justice in the Digital Age

Raphael Cohen-Almagor Author Of Confronting the Internet's Dark Side: Moral and Social Responsibility on the Free Highway

From my list on the internet's history, development, and challenges.

Why am I passionate about this?

Raphael Cohen-Almagor, DPhil, St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, is Professor of Politics, Olof Palme Visiting Professor, Lund University, Founding Director of the Middle East Study Centre, University of Hull, and Global Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Raphael taught, inter alia, at Oxford (UK), Jerusalem, Haifa (Israel), UCLA, Johns Hopkins (USA), and Nirma University (India). With more than 300 publications, Raphael has published extensively in the field of political philosophy, including Liberal Democracy and the Limits of Tolerance; Challenges to Democracy; The Right to Die with Dignity; The Scope of Tolerance; Confronting the Internet's Dark Side; Just, Reasonable Multiculturalism, and The Republic, Secularism and Security: France versus the Burqa and the Niqab.

Raphael's book list on the internet's history, development, and challenges

Raphael Cohen-Almagor Why did Raphael love this book?

For me, every book by Clifford (Cliff) Christians is always a celebration. I met Cliff in 1996 and we kept in touch ever since then. Christians has contributed to the field of media ethics more than any other scholar I know. In this book, Christians explores the fundamentals of ethics and justice in moral theory. In addition to “the usual suspects,” i.e., Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Rene Descartes, John Stuart Mill, Auguste Comte, and Max Weber, Christians explores modern liberal philosophy, feminist philosophy, African philosophy, Latin American liberation theology, Confucianism, and Islam. He does this in his usual dazzling and most comprehensive style, exhibiting wide knowledge of the literature and brilliant analysis that adds layers upon layers of sharp insights. As in his previous books, Christians invokes an ethics of care and humanity in order to alleviate poverty, homelessness, and unemployment, issues that trouble Western and non-Western societies, albeit in different…

By Clifford G. Christians,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Media Ethics and Global Justice in the Digital Age as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Today's digital revolution is a worldwide phenomenon, with profound and often differential implications for communities around the world and their relationships to one another. This book presents a new, explicitly international theory of media ethics, incorporating non-Western perspectives and drawing deeply on both moral philosophy and the philosophy of technology. Clifford Christians develops an ethics grounded in three principles - truth, human dignity, and non-violence - and shows how these principles can be applied across a wide range of cases and domains. The book is a guide for media professionals, scholars, and educators who are concerned with the global ramifications…


Book cover of Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential

Doug White Author Of Wounded Charity: Lessons Learned from the Wounded Warrior Project Crisis

From my list on the complex worlds of philanthropy and nonprofits.

Why am I passionate about this?

The nonprofit sector is important to society and I often marvel at how many of us – which is to say all of us – have been touched by the generosity of others. With few exceptions, anyone who has graduated from college, who has been admitted to a hospital, who has attended a faith-based service, who has examined art at a gallery, who – literally, and there are no exceptions here – breathes air has benefited from the work of nonprofit organizations and the philanthropists who support them. It is therefore important to me to understand how the system works and how important charities are to society and a functioning democracy. 

Doug's book list on the complex worlds of philanthropy and nonprofits

Doug White Why did Doug love this book?

In Uncharitable Dan Pallotta challenges the way most people think about charity. 

Many people have been told that the less charities spend on overhead, fundraising, and salaries, the better the charities are. But this is not a healthy way to understand a charity’s impact, and Uncharitable refutes this myth. 

Pallotta describes what he calls an “economic apartheid,” a mindset that denies charities the critical tools that the for-profit sector is allowed to use without restraint: incentives to take risks, counterproductive limits on compensation, and moral objections to the use of donated dollars for anything other than program expenditures. 

I like this book not because Pallotta has a fully fleshed-out roadmap to energize the nonprofit sector, but because he is one of the few to articulate important problems facing the sector.

By Dan Pallotta,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Uncharitable as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Uncharitable investigates how for-profit strategies could and should be used by nonprofits.

Uncharitable goes where no other book on the nonprofit sector has dared to tread. Where other texts suggest ways to optimize performance inside the existing charity paradigm, Uncharitable suggests that the paradigm itself is the problem and calls into question our fundamental canons about charity. Dan Pallotta argues that society's nonprofit ethic creates an inequality that denies the nonprofit sector critical tools and permissions that the for-profit sector is allowed to use without restraint. These double standards place the nonprofit sector at an extreme disadvantage. While the for-profit…


Book cover of Repeal the Second Amendment: The Case for a Safer America

Thomas Gabor Author Of American Carnage: Shattering the Myths That Fuel Gun Violence

From my list on gun violence and the gun industry.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a former Professor of Criminology who has published over 200 works. While I have written about gun policy for 30 years, my first book on the topic was stimulated by the murder of an unarmed Trayvon Martin in Florida by an armed neighborhood vigilante who pursued Trayvon for no reason other than that he was a tall black male wearing a hoodie. I was outraged by the shooter’s contention that he was acting in self-defense. This case prompted me to write my book Confronting Gun Violence in America which included two chapters on the issue of defensive gun use. 

Thomas' book list on gun violence and the gun industry

Thomas Gabor Why did Thomas love this book?

Repeal the Second Amendment is a highly engaging book that makes the case for amending the Constitution in order to facilitate gun law reform.

Lichtman shows that gun controls were in place from the early days of the Republic and that the Second Amendment to the Constitution referred to the “right to keep and bear arms” within the context of militia service only. This right did not apply to an individual right to bear arms. In the 1800s many states prohibited the carrying of guns.

Lichtman provides a path forward to repealing the Second Amendment and addresses skeptics who claim that such an undertaking is a fool’s errand.

By Allan J. Lichtman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Repeal the Second Amendment as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

There's an average of one mass shooting per day in the United States. Given the ineffectiveness of the gun control lobby, it's time for a strategy with spine. In Repeal the Second Amendment, Allan Lichtman has written the first book that uses history, legal theory and up-to-the-minute data to make a compelling case for the amendment's repeal in order to create a clear road to sensible gun control in the US. Repeal the Second Amendment explores both the true history and current interpretation of the Second Amendment to expose the NRA's blatant historical manipulations and irresponsible fake news releases. Lichtman…


Book cover of International Handbook on Ageing and Public Policy

Andrzej Klimczuk Author Of Economic Foundations for Creative Ageing Policy, Volume II: Putting Theory into Practice

From my list on public policy on ageing.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a student, one day, I noticed that something was wrong with our world. Older people are separated from younger ones and sometimes almost invisible. I decided to focus on researching whether and how older people organize themselves into groups and influence important areas of social, economic, and political life. The study of the social capital of older adults led me to research on age discrimination, intergenerational relationships, age-friendly communities and cities, social innovation, co-design, citizen science, and public policy on ageing. I am convinced that only multi-sectoral and multi-level cooperation can lead to the implementation of constructive responses to today’s global challenges.

Andrzej's book list on public policy on ageing

Andrzej Klimczuk Why did Andrzej love this book?

This quite heavy volume covers a wide range of 37 chapters that focus on the most important topics related to global ageing.

Contributions delivered by experts from areas such as sociology, economics, demography, social policy, public health, and public administration are divided into two categories: challenges and practitioner perspectives.

On the one hand, the authors provide introductions to studies and policy contexts on demographic change, pensions, health, and welfare.

On the other hand, the collection contains a selection of international case studies, policy innovations, and examples of the involvement of civil society in responding to challenges related to ageing population.

Both sides are good starting points for anyone who wants to go more in-depth in the field of ageing policy.

By Sarah Harper, Kate Hamblin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked International Handbook on Ageing and Public Policy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

With the collective knowledge of expert contributors in the field, The International Handbook on Ageing and Public Policy explores the challenges arising from the ageing of populations across the globe.

With an expansive look at the topic, this comprehensive Handbook examines various national state approaches to welfare provisions for older people and highlights alternatives based around the voluntary and third-party sector, families and private initiatives. Each of these issues are broken down further and split into six comprehensive sections:

- Context
- Pensions
- Health
- Welfare
- Case Studies
- Policy Innovation and Civil Society

Academics interested in policy…


Book cover of Putting Civil Society in Its Place: Governance, Metagovernance and Subjectivity

Richard R. Weiner Author Of Sustainable Community Movement Organizations: Solidarity Economies and Rhizomatic Practices

From my list on understanding regimes of law and political economy.

Why am I passionate about this?

Rich Weiner co-edited this featured volume with Francesca Forno. He is a political sociologist with a strong foundation in the history of political and social thought. He has served for twenty-two years as dean of the faculty of arts and sciences. His focus has been on non-statist political organizations and social movements with a perspective of middle-range theorizing enriched by three generations of Frankfurt School critical theory of society.

Richard's book list on understanding regimes of law and political economy

Richard R. Weiner Why did Richard love this book?

A synoptic and synthetic exploration of “civil society” as a mode of governance with a degree of capacity/capability of coordinating the power of social relations and solidarities.

I very much like the book’s focus on networks and solidarity rather than the usual market versus state command binary.

Specifically, I appreciate how the book poses the issue: Can webs of governance – focused on new forms of legitimacy and solidarity – counter webs of capital accumulation uncoupled from territorial spatial boundaries?

By Bob Jessop,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Putting Civil Society in Its Place as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Renowned social and political theorist Bob Jessop explores the idea of civil society as a mode of governance in this bold challenge to current thinking.
Developing theories of governance failure and metagovernance, the book analyses the limits and failures of economic and social policy in various styles of governance. Reviewing the principles of self-emancipation and self-responsibilisation it considers the struggle to integrate civil society into governance, and the power of social networks and solidarity within civil society.
With case studies of mobilisations to tackle economic and social problems, this is a comprehensive review of the factors that influence their success…


Book cover of Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics, and Diplomacy of Climate Change

Mark A. Maslin Author Of How To Save Our Planet: The Facts

From my list on helping you save our beautiful precious planet.

Why am I passionate about this?

The world around us is an amazing and beautiful place and for me science adds another layer of appreciation. I am a Professor of Earth System Science at University College London - which means I am lucky enough to research climate change in the past, the present, and the future. I study everything from early human evolution in Africa to the future impacts of anthropogenic climate change.  I have published over 190 papers in top science journals. I have written 10 books, over 100 popular articles and I regularly appear on radio and television. My blogs on the 'Conversation' have been read over 5.5 million times and you might want to check them out!

Mark's book list on helping you save our beautiful precious planet

Mark A. Maslin Why did Mark love this book?

The subtitle of this book is rethinking the science, economics, and diplomacy of climate change. And trust me Simon does that for you and more.

Because the world is facing multiple disasters with heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, floods, and massive storms becoming more common and more deadly. But there is an underlying optimism in this book – things are changing and we are reducing carbon emissions, pollution, and destruction of the natural world.  But the message Simon is giving us is that we are not doing it quick enough.

The way our economic and political systems are set up means we are slow to respond – and as Simon eloquently points out with facts and figures we need to do everything 5 times faster.  The question is, will we?

By Simon Sharpe,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Five Times Faster as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

We need to act five times faster to avoid dangerous climate change. As Greenland melts, Australia burns, and greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, we think we know who the villains are: oil companies, consumerism, weak political leaders. But what if the real blocks to progress are the ideas and institutions that are supposed to be helping us? Five Times Faster is an inside story from Simon Sharpe, who has spent ten years at the forefront of climate change policy and diplomacy. In our fight to avoid dangerous climate change, science is pulling its punches, diplomacy is picking the wrong…


Book cover of The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception

Philip Mirowski Author Of The Knowledge We Have Lost in Information: The History of Information in Modern Economics

From my list on the politics of science.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an economist who came to realize that the marketplace of ideas was a political doctrine, and not an empirical description of how we came to know what we think we know. Science has never functioned in the same manner across centuries; it was only during my lifetime that it became recast as a subset of market reality. I have spent a fair amount of effort exploring how economics sought to attain the status of a science; but now the tables have turned. It is now scientists who are trained to become first and foremost market actors, finally elevating the political dominance of the economists.

Philip's book list on the politics of science

Philip Mirowski Why did Philip love this book?

If Oreskes & Conway documented the historical trend, Michaels shows what the daily battle over the implications of science for governance is like from within. As former Assistant Secretary for Labor for OSHA, he recounts the never-ending combat over how science is generated and interpreted when it comes to the safety and comprehension of the American public. From dark money to hired guns to compromised scientists, he puts names and faces to the war on science, with truth as the first casualty.

By David Michaels,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Triumph of Doubt as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Opioids. Concussions. Obesity. Climate change.

America is a country of everyday crises - big, long-spanning problems that persist, mostly unregulated, despite their toll on the country's health and vitality. And for every case of government inaction on one of these issues, there is a set of familiar, doubtful refrains: The science is unclear. The data is inconclusive. Regulation is unjustified. It's a slippery slope.

Is it?

The Triumph of Doubt traces the ascendance of science-for-hire in American life and government, from its origins in the tobacco industry in the 1950s to its current manifestations across government, public policy, and even…


Book cover of Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet
Book cover of Technologies of Freedom
Book cover of The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society

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