This is a book about technology, and about rules. It is about what happens when technology moves faster than governments, creating markets that--for some time at least--have no rules. It is a book about the pioneers who thrive in a world of chaos and the governments that eventually rein them in.
Beginning with the development of the compass in the early Middle Ages, Debora Spar, a Harvard Business School professor, takes the reader back in time, looking at a series of technological revolutions that promised, in their time, to transform the worlds politics and business. She tells tales of the printing press and maps; of telegraph, radio, and satellite television; of software, encryption, and the advent of digital music. At each of these junctures, she suggests, technological innovation leads both to a wave of commerce and of chaos. Entrepreneurs such as Samuel Morse and Rupert Murdoch carve new markets from the emerging technology and proclaim that the old rules no longer apply.
And for a while they are right. Pioneers plow into the world that technology has wrought, leaving governments gasping in their wake. But eventually--and inevitably--even cowboys realize they need rules: rules of property, rules of coordination, rules of competition. The erstwhile pioneers thus turn to government, lobbying for order and setting the stage for the next wave of innovation.
Spar is a gifted storyteller, so each chapter of Ruling the Waves reads like an adventure tale. But the real excitement of the book comes from the underlying patterns she articulates, and the parallels she draws between historical events and our own tumultuous times.
Industry Reviews
PRAISE FOR RULING THE WAVES "[An] intriguing and well-crafted new book . . . Truly illuminating."--The Washington Post Book World
"Engaging capsule histories of the growth and eventual control of (maritime) piracy, independent radio broadcasting, encryption, and use of the Internet."--USA Today
"A beautifully written book . . . Spar puts cyberspace in its place."--The Economist PRAISE FOR RULING THE WAVES
"[An] intriguing and well-crafted new book . . . Truly illuminating."--The Washington Post Book World
"Engaging capsule histories of the growth and eventual control of (maritime) piracy, independent radio broadcasting, encryption, and use of the Internet."--USA Today
"A beautifully written book . . . Spar puts cyberspace in its place."--The Economist PRAISE FOR "RULING THE WAVES"
"[An] intriguing and well-crafted new book . . . Truly illuminating."--"The Washington Post Book World"
"Engaging capsule histories of the growth and eventual control of (maritime) piracy, independent radio broadcasting, encryption, and use of the Internet."--"USA Today"
"A beautifully written book . . . Spar puts cyberspace in its place."--"The Economist" PRAISE FOR"RULING THE WAVES"
"[An] intriguing and well-crafted new book . . . Truly illuminating."--"The Washington Post Book World"
"Engaging capsule histories of the growth and eventual control of (maritime) piracy, independent radio broadcasting, encryption, and use of the Internet."--"USA Today"
"A beautifully written book . . . Spar puts cyberspace in its place."--"The Economist" PRAISE FOR "RULING THE WAVES"
"[An] intriguing and well-crafted new book . . . Truly illuminating."--"The Washington Post Book World"
"Engaging capsule histories of the growth and eventual control of (maritime) piracy, independent radio broadcasting, encryption, and use of the Internet."--"USA Today"
"A beautifully written book . . . Spar puts cyberspace in its place."--"The Economist"
