Browse Hierarchy HST5618: A History of the Internet

The Internet is everywhere. From the smartphones in our pockets to the supermarkets delivering our groceries, large parts of our lives are mediated by digital technology, through screens which connect us to computers in air-conditioned rooms thousands of miles away. But how did we get here? What really is this thing we call "the Internet"? Who made these systems, and how do they work? Beginning with the Cold War origins of today's globally-interconnected digital world, this module will explore the social, political and economic impacts of networked digital technology, its impact on history, and on how that history is written.