Article ID: CBB979202636

The Telephone and Its Uses in 1980s U.S. Activism (2018)

unapi

Claims that today's digital technologies are unprecedented in their effect on society are founded on a weak understanding of the roles played by pre-digital technologies. Although the landline phone was the most ubiquitous American technology of the twentieth century, and an important influence on social and political life, it has received little attention in most fields of scholarship. But widespread use of the landline telephone is key to explaining how activists in the U.S. Central America movement of the 1980s sustained their commitment and sense of community. Telephony's emotional and sensory qualities, underpinned by the powers of the human voice, were significant factors in the Central America movement's longevity and potency. Communications technology had a profound influence on the character and results of protest movements well before the digital age.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB979202636/

Similar Citations

Book Amy Marie Hay; (2021)
The Defoliation of America: Agent Orange Chemicals, Citizens, and Protests (/isis/citation/CBB039979128/)

Book Sarah E. Robey; (2022)
Atomic Americans: Citizens in a Nuclear State (/isis/citation/CBB648725464/)

Article Schüring, Michael; (2012)
West German Protestants and the Campaign against Nuclear Technology (/isis/citation/CBB001213099/)

Book Wisnioski, Matthew H.; (2012)
Engineers for Change: Competing Visions of Technology in 1960s America (/isis/citation/CBB001201050/)

Book Henry Richard Maar III; (2022)
Freeze!: The Grassroots Movement to Halt the Arms Race and End the Cold War (/isis/citation/CBB798931618/)

Article Dunbar-Hester, Christina; (2009)
“Free the spectrum!” Activist encounters with old and new media technology (/isis/citation/CBB001180356/)

Article Rubinson, Paul; (2011)
“Crucified on a Cross of Atoms”: Scientists, Politics, and the Test Ban Treaty (/isis/citation/CBB001231508/)

Article Bruce E. Stewart; Christopher J. Manganiello; (October 2018)
Watershed Democracy: Rural Environmentalism and the Battle Against the TVA in Western North Carolina, 1965–1972 (/isis/citation/CBB798720878/)

Book Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick; (2020)
The good drone: How social movements democratize surveillance (/isis/citation/CBB075748539/)

Article Bennett, Ira; Sarewitz, Daniel; (2006)
Too Little, Too Late? Research Policies on the Societal Implications of Nanotechnology in the United States (/isis/citation/CBB000720308/)

Book Foertsch, Jacqueline; (2013)
Reckoning Day: Race, Place, and the Atom Bomb in Postwar America (/isis/citation/CBB001213735/)

Book John Francis; (2009)
Planetwalker: 22 Years of Walking. 17 Years of Silence. (/isis/citation/CBB182503730/)

Book Joanne Barker; (2021)
Red Scare: The State's Indigenous Terrorist (/isis/citation/CBB014767308/)

Article Hirsh, Richard F.; (2004)
Power struggle: Changing momentum in the restructured American electric utility system (/isis/citation/CBB001180138/)

Authors & Contributors
Dunbar-Hester, Christina
Francis, John
William W. Buzbee
Sarah E. Robey
Maar, Henry Richard, III
Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick
Concepts
Political activists and activism
Technology and politics
Protest movements
Technology and society
Environmentalism
Nuclear weapons; atomic weapons
Time Periods
20th century, late
21st century
20th century
Places
United States
New York City (New York, U.S.)
Canada
Soviet Union
Nova Scotia
Germany
Institutions
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty; Partial Test Ban Treaty; Limited Test Ban Treaty (1963)
Tennessee Valley Authority
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment