
Ask HN: Any good books on the history of the internet? - dom2
Looking for some books about the creation and the history of the internet. Ideally not purely technical, with a focus on how society impacted the internet&#x27;s development and vice versa.
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mulholio
Some of my favourite internet-specific books:

\- The Dream Machine. Fantastic tech history coverage with a particular focus
on the lead up to the internet [https://press.stripe.com/#the-dream-
machine](https://press.stripe.com/#the-dream-machine).

\- Tools for Thought - Lots of similar ground to the Dream Machine but with a
less internet-centric focus. Still great though -
[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tools-Thought-History-Mind-
Expandin...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tools-Thought-History-Mind-Expanding-
Technology/dp/0262681153/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=tools+for+thought&qid=1594581458&sr=8-1)

Perhaps not internet focused, but tangential/technology:

\- The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation

\- One Giant Leap (Apollo Missions. Decent amount of computing foucs)

\- Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson

\- Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration. Lots of
interesting snippets of tech and non-tech history

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HenryR
Where Wizards Stay Up Late ([https://www.amazon.com/Where-Wizards-Stay-Up-
Late/dp/0684832...](https://www.amazon.com/Where-Wizards-Stay-Up-
Late/dp/0684832674))

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mnunez
A book that I loved since the first time I picked it from a library shelf back
in 1998 or so, "Computer - A history of the information machine", lists the
following book as additional resource about the history of the Internet:
Abbate, Janet (2000). _Inventing the Internet[1]._

"Janet Abbate recounts the key players and technologies that allowed the
Internet to develop; but her main focus is always on the social and cultural
factors that influenced the Internet's design and use."

[1]
[https://archive.org/details/inventinginterne00abba](https://archive.org/details/inventinginterne00abba)

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leejoramo
The Cuckoo's Egg tells the story of the early internet, breaking into Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory’s net by Cold War spiss. Well Written by Clifford
Stoll the net admin/astronomer at the center of the story. Plenty of the tech
and culture of the internet young internet.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg)

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a3n
This Wikipedia article has pointers and references in so many directions,
you're bound to find something about what you're looking for, or that points
to something else that you're looking for. The article itself is a good start.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet)

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japhyr
This isn't entirely specific to the internet, but rather the development of
UNIX. Brian Kernighan's _UNIX: A History and a Memoir_ [0] is great. It covers
a bit of the technical underpinnings of UNIX, but also covers the people and
personalities behind its development. It helped me better understand many of
the tools we still use today.

[https://www.amazon.com/Brian-W-
Kernighan/dp/1695978552/ref=s...](https://www.amazon.com/Brian-W-
Kernighan/dp/1695978552/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=unix+history+kernhigan&qid=1594513676&s=books&sr=1-1-spell)

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DataDaoDe
I just finished reading "The Victorian Internet" by Tom Standage and would
highly recommend it. The book is an informative and enjoyable read about the
rise and fall of the telegraph in the 19th century. The development of the
telegraph has a lot of parallels to the modern internet that are worth
contemplating and this book provides a point worth noting - the modern
internet was not the first means of rapid exchange of information through
networks spanning the entire planet.

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gabrielsroka
Not a book, but a video from one of the creators, Vint Cerf:
[https://youtu.be/Hf0rjtnwC9A](https://youtu.be/Hf0rjtnwC9A)

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jcontini
The latter chapters of "The Innovators" by Walter Isaacson did this well I
thought. Just finished it and highly recommend.

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sgillen
Not a book, but I’ve been really liking this blog post.
[https://technicshistory.com/the-backbone/](https://technicshistory.com/the-
backbone/)

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giantg2
Not explicitly internet or complete history, but The Best of 2600 is a good
historical tech book.

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redis_mlc
You can see one or two of the original Internet routers at the Computer
History Museum in Palo Alto.

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vithlani
Mother Earth Mother Board -- a superb essay by Neal Steaphenson on internet
cables.

