A sweeping, revisionist historical analysis of telecommunications networks, from the dawn of the republic to the 21st century. Telecommunications networks are vast, intricate, hugely costly systems for exchanging messages and information-within cities and across continents. From the Post Office and the telegraph to today's internet, these networks have sown domestic division while also acting as sources of international power. In Crossed Wires, Dan Schiller, who has conducted archival research on US telecommunications for more than forty years, recovers the extraordinary social history of the major network systems of the United States. Drawing on arrays of archival documents and secondary sources, Schiller reveals that this history has been shaped by sharp social and political conflict and is embedded in the larger history of an expansionary US political economy. Schiller argues that networks have enabled US imperialism through a a recurrent "American system" of cross-border communications. Three other key findings wind through the book. First, business users of networks--more than carriers, and certainly more than residential users--have repeatedly determined how telecommunications systems have developed. Second, despite their current importance for virtually every sphere of social life, networks have been consecrated above all to aiding the circulation of commodities. Finally, although the preferences of executives and officials have broadly determined outcomes, these elites have repeatedly had to contend against the ideas and organizations of workers, social movement activists, and other reformers. This authoritative and comprehensive revisionist history of US telecommunications argues that not technology but a dominative--and contested--political economy drove the evolution of this critical industry.

Mitchell Harris is captivated by Emma Sutton, but when his best friend also falls in love with her and asks for help writing her letters, he's torn between desire and loyalty. Longing for a family, Emma is elated when she receives a love note from a handsome engineer, but must decide between the writer of the letters and her growing affection for Mitchell.

What would you do if you receive messages on your office phone about an alleged drug trafficking operation going on where you worked? What would you do if you believe this illegal drug activity could possibly involve your boss? Cross Wires is a powerful mystery that brings to light the dangers of a very respectful and successful employee who is caught in a vice between his loyalty to the company or reporting what he knows to the authorities. By going to law enforcement do you take a chance of losing your job and more risking your life by reporting these illegal acts? What happens next is cathartic scenes of the most devastating turn of events one can encounter dealing with fear. Cross Wires speaks of a corporate executive who had just received the nation’s top honor in receiving the Fortune 500 Award as one top business financially. Shortly after receiving this prestigious award his corporation is investigated by the feds involving him in an international drug tracking ring. After a series of the most suspense acts of terror involving a murder for hire plot things take the most unbelievable twist to justice. Cross Wires brings to meaning of who do you trust.