Books & References

The following books and other reference material are highly recommended for additional information on the Bell System and related telecommunications topics.

• "End of the Line - The Rise and Fall of AT&T" by Leslie Cauley. Free Press, Copyright 2005. I started reading this book the day it arrived in the mail; it is well worth reading.  The author, Leslie Cauley, is a veteran telecom journalist having worked for the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Book reviews can be found at the Barnes and Nobel website by clicking HERE.
   

• "Rape of Ma Bell" and "A Voice in the Wilderness" (link leads to book reviews)
   

• Western Electric & the Bell System - A SURVEY OF SERVICE (electronic files available for downloading)
   

• AT&T Divestiture Timeline - Web page on this site with key dates leading up to divestiture and beyond.
   

• Long Lines - The Bell System Unit For Nationwide
  and Worldwide Communications - Published in 1969
   

• "The Phone Book - What the telephone company would rather you not know" by J. Edward Hyde. Henry Regnery Company - Chicago. Copyright 1976. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 76-6275. This book is out of print but you may find it in used book stores or Amazon.com.  Gives a dark view of Ma Bell but interesting reading nonetheless. I bought the book from a telephone collector.
   

• "Manufacturing the Future - A History of Western Electric" by Stephen B. Adams and Orville R. Butler. Excellent book! I bought mine on eBay. Published in 1999 by Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-65118-2 (hardcover).
   

• "Telephone - The First Hundred Years" - The Wondrous Invention that Changed a World and Spawned a Corporate Giant. By John Brooks. First Published in 1976 by Harper & Row, Publishers. ISBN 0-06-010540-2.
   

• "Bell Labs - Life in the Crown Jewel" by Narain Gehani. First published in 2003 by Silicon Press.

  "Bell Labs, the greatest research lab of the 20th century, is going through difficult times. The current events at Lucent will have a deep impact on Bell Labs. Gehani talks about Bell Labs with an insider's perspective. He has seen Bell Labs during its best times and during its difficult days. He was at Bell Labs during the monopoly and post monopoly days, and when Lucent was doing great and during its difficult times.

   

  Gehani’s Bell Labs book is the first book that tells the story of this very famous organization. Bell Labs is part of the heritage of the many of the current and past companies in the telecom industry. People associated with the telephone companies will find this book great reading, historical information of their employer’s glorious past, will get an understanding of the workings of this great institution, how the AT&T divestiture affected it, and the challenges faced by it now.

   

  Gehani's story of America's national treasure and corporate crown jewel will keep you riveted to reading about a way of life possibly gone forever. To read the book description, click HERE.

   

  The book is available from Silicon Press, Amazon (www.amazon.com), Barnes & Noble (www.bn.com) and other book stores.

• Technologies of Freedom
  Ithiel de Sola Pool, 1983
  Cambridge: Belknap/Harvard
   

• The Deal of the Century: The Breakup of AT&T
  Steve Coll, 1986
  New York: Atheneum
   

• Signals: The Telephone and Beyond (Revised edition)
  John R. Pierce and Michael A. Noll
  San Francisco: Freeman
   

• America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940
  Claude S. Fischer, 1992
  Berkeley: University of California Press
   

• The Telecommunications Revolution: Past, Present and Future
  Sapolsky, Crane, Neuman, and Noam, 1992
  London & New York: Routledge
   

• The American Telegrapher: A Social History, 1860 - 1900
  Edwin Gabler, 1988
  New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press
   

• The Biggest Company On Earth: A Profile of AT&T
  Sonny Kleinfield, 1981
  New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston
   

• I'm Sorry, The Monopoly You Have Reached Is Not In Service. . .
  K. Aubrey Stone, 1973
  New York: Ballantine/Grassroots
   

• Monopoly
  Joseph C. Goulden, 1968
  New York: Putnam
   

• In One Man's Life: Being Chapters from the Personal and Business Career of Theodore N. Vail
  Albert B. Paine, 1921
  New York: Harper
   

• Disconnecting Bell: The Impact of the AT&T Divestiture
  Harry M. Shooshan II (Editor), 1984
  Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press
   

• The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier
  Bruce Sterling, 1992
  New York: Bantam
   

• The First Amendment in the Information Age
  Joel M. Bolstein, 1987
  Washington, D.C.: Freedom of Expression Foundation & The Media Institute
   

• The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier
  Howard Rheingold, 1993
  Menlo Park, CA: Addison Wesley
   

• The Intelligent Network Task Force Report
  Barbara O'Connor, et al., 1988
  San Francisco: Pacific Bell Consumer Affairs
   

• American Tel. & Tel., The Story of a Great Monopoly,
  by Horace Coon, Longmans, Green and Co., New York, 1939.
   

• AT&T -- The Story of Industrial Conquest,
  by N. R. Danielian, The Vanguard Press, New York, 1939.
   

• The Telephone in a Changing World,
  by Marion May Dilts, Longmans, Green and Co., New York, 1941.
   

• Communications in the World of the Future,
  by Hal Hellman, M. Evans and Company, New York, 1969.
   

• Alexander Graham Bell,
  by Catherine MacKenzie, Houghton Mifflen Co., Boston and New York, 1928.
   

• The Bell Telephone System,
  by Arthur W. Page, Harper & Brothers, New York and London, 1929.
   

• In One Man's Life, Biography of Theodore N. Vail,
  by Albert Bigelow Paine, Harper & Brothers, New York and London, 19?9.
   

• Beginnings of Telephony,
  by F. L. Rhodes, Harper & Brothers, New York and London, 1929.
   

• Views on Public Questions,
  by Theodore N. Vail, privately printed, 1917.
   

• For Noteworthy Public Service, The Theodore N. Vail National Awards,
  published by the Bell System, New York, 1950.
   

• Exploring Life, The Autobiography of Thomas A. Watson,
  by D. Appleton and Company, New York and London, 1926.

• Muddling Through, A selective autobiography by John M. Fraser,
  by CreateSpace, Pueblo, CO, 2009.

 

TECHNICAL BOOKS

• Telecommunications Primer
  G. Langley, 1983
  London: Pitman
   

• Understanding Communications Systems
  Don L. Cannon and Gerald Luecke
  Dallas: Texas Instruments

• A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System (in seven volumes):
  The Early Years (1875-1925)
  M. D. Fagen, Editor
  Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. 1975
  xii+1073 pages
  
  National Service in War and Peace (1925-1975)
  M. D. Fagen, Editor
  Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. 1978
  xv+757 pages
  
  Switching Technology (1925-1975)
  A. E. Joel, Jr. et al
  G.F. Schincler, Editor
  Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. 1982
  xii+639 pages
  
  Physical Sciences (1925-1980)
  S. Millman, Editor
  Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. 1983
  xi+674 pages
  
  Communications Sciences (1925-1980)
  S. Millman, Editor
  Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. 1984
  xxii+521 pages
  
  Transmission Technology (1925-1975)
  E. F. O'Neill, Editor
  Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. 1985
  xv+812 pages
  
  Electronics Technology (1925-1975)
  F. M. Smits, Editor
  Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. 1985
  xiv+370 pages
   

MISCELLANEOUS

• The Telephone in America - 39 page pamphlet published by the Bell System in August of 1955 for the consumer.