Book ID: CBB775086796

The Listeners: A History of Wiretapping in the United States (2022)

unapi

Brian Hochman (Author)


Harvard University Press


Publication Date: 2022
Physical Details: 368
Language: English

Wiretapping is nearly as old as electronic communications. Telegraph operators intercepted enemy messages during the Civil War. Law enforcement agencies were listening to private telephone calls as early as 1895. Communications firms have assisted government eavesdropping programs since the early twentieth century―and they have spied on their own customers too. Such breaches of privacy once provoked outrage, but today most Americans have resigned themselves to constant electronic monitoring. How did we get from there to here?In The Listeners, Brian Hochman shows how the wiretap evolved from a specialized intelligence-gathering tool to a mundane fact of life. He explores the origins of wiretapping in military campaigns and criminal confidence games and tracks the use of telephone taps in the US government’s wars on alcohol, communism, terrorism, and crime. While high-profile eavesdropping scandals fueled public debates about national security, crime control, and the rights and liberties of individuals, wiretapping became a routine surveillance tactic for private businesses and police agencies alike.From wayward lovers to foreign spies, from private detectives to public officials, and from the silver screen to the Supreme Court, The Listeners traces the long and surprising history of wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping in the United States. Along the way, Brian Hochman considers how earlier generations of Americans confronted threats to privacy that now seem more urgent than ever.

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Reviewed By

Review P. Arun (2023) Review of "The Listeners: A History of Wiretapping in the United States". Technology and Culture (pp. 229-230). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB775086796/

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Authors & Contributors
Arntfield, Mike
Bijsterveld, Karin
Denardis, Laura
Durant, Darrin
Galis, Vasilis
Jepsen, Thomas C.
Journals
Science as Culture
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine
Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society
Circumscribere: International Journal for the History of Science
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History
Publishers
New York, City University of
MIT Press
Palgrave Macmillan
University of California Press
University of Pennsylvania Press
Springer International Publishing
Concepts
Surveillance
Privacy
Technology and government
Technology and law
Communication technology
Security technologies
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
19th century
Modern
20th century, late
18th century
Places
United States
Great Britain
European Union
Brazil
East Germany
Soviet Union
Institutions
United States. National Security Agency
Amazon (Firm)
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