The internet is the dominant medium of communication of the 21st century. If it wasn't clear beforehand, Edward Snowden's revelations should make it evident that the internet has developed into a network of both freedom and surveillance. But what are its origins? Martin Schmitt offers an urgently necessary reclassification of the history of the internet, in which he historicizes its development in the USA between 1967-1975. He illustrates how the internet was designed during the Cold War as a cybernetic system between counterculture, academia and the military, and that from its beginnings has served both emancipatory and surveillance purposes. It is through this view of its history that the present effects of the internet can be understood.
