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The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010, 366 pp

In The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires, Tim Wu traces the history of America's communication industriestelecommunications, film, broadcasting, cable television, and the Internet-as they evolve from their origins as promising new "disruptive inventions," through a period of open, innovative, and entrepreneurial-driven ventures, to an eventual-but according to Wu perhaps not inevitable-consolidation into closed, monopolistic institutions. Wu's engaging and wideranging narrative illustrates how these information empires become obsessed with the need to preserve their market domination in the face of new media entrants, squelch threatening, new innovation (often with the acquiescence of the federal government) and stifle the free flow of information. Given this pattern, a key question for Wu is whether this cycle is happening again-whether the Internet, despite its initial open and arguably non-capitalist roots, after a decade or two of existence, is exhibiting a similar consolidation and closing, and is indeed becoming monopolized by major corporations with serious social ramifications, including threats to innovations and to free speech. The book's title is attributed to an observation by Fred Friendly, former president of CBS News, who pointed out that despite all the debates about government's abridgement of freedom of expression and free speech, what really matters is who controls the "master switch," that is, who is in charge of the underlying networks and communications infrastructure, because that is who decides who speaks. This examination of how the control over infrastructure and innovation in the information industries ultimately affects the free exchange of ideas is an important theme throughout the book. Wu emphasizes the power concentrated media corporations hold to circumscribe the free flow of information: "We sometimes treat the information industries as if they were like any other enterprise, but they are not, for their structure determines who gets heard" (p. 13). This perspective is not original to Wu, and this book does not represent a comprehensive examination of the history of the American