Newman's powerful, deeply researched book about the seventeen-year-old net neutrality fight puts the focus where it belongs—on communications policy advocates who won a stunning victory in 2015, only to lose it in 2017. His critique of the advocates' strategies provides a roadmap for critical battles yet to come.
Gigi B. Sohn, Distinguished Fellow, Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law and Policy; counselor to former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler
The fight for net neutrality is one of the most important policy struggles facing the U.S. today. By situating it within a long history of political and intellectual contestation, Newman masterfully theorizes and clarifies this vital issue. Engagingly written, deeply researched, and provocatively argued, this book is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of democracy.
Victor Pickard, coauthor of After Net Neutrality: A New Deal for the Digital Age
The successes and failures of net neutrality represent the most dramatic achievement of progressive action in U.S. telecommunications policy since the 1960s. This book is the essential guide. Newman rises above his activist roots, providing a magisterial scholarly history of the struggles over net neutrality, rich in both empirical detail and incisive theoretical insights, well attuned to the many ironies of the story.
Thomas Streeter, Professor, Western University, Ontario; author of The Net Effect: Romanticism, Capitalism, and the Internet
In The Paradoxes of Network Neutralities, Newman offers a capacious and nuanced account, placing present and recent contestations around net neutrality within a critical interpretive context. With a sympathetic yet shrewd eye, he demonstrates how market framings have constrained media reform efforts. Scholars, activists, and policymakers will all benefit from Newman's insight into the long-standing struggle over telecommunications rights in a democracy.
Christina Dunbar-Hester, faculty member, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California; author of Hacking Diversity: The Politics of Inclusion in Open Technology Cultures and Low Power to the People: Pirates, Protest, and Politics in FM Radio Activism
