The Internet Age: an era of unprecedented freedom in both communication and culture. However each major new medium, from telephone to satellite television, has crested a waved of similar idealistic optimism, before succumbing to the inevitable undertow of industrial consolidation. Every once free and open technology has, in time, become centralised and closed; a huge corporate power taking control of the 'master switch'. Today, as a similar struggle looms over the Internet, increasingly the pipeline of all other media, the stakes have never been higher.Part industrial expose, part meditation on the nature of freedom of expression, The Master Switch brings to light a crucual drama - rife with indelible characters - played out over decades in the shadows of global communication.'A free and open Internet is not a given. Indeed, corporate interests are working feverishly to seize control of it. Drawing on history, The Master Switch shows how this could easily happen and why we are at risk of loseing the freedom we now take for granted.

A must-read for all Americans who want to remain the ones deciding what they can read, watch, and listen to.' - Arianna Huffington, founder, The Huffington Post.'Every now and then a book changes the way we understand the world. The Master Switch is such an achievement . rigorous . imaginative . enthralling.' - Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars.