From Counterculture to Cyberculture
Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism
- Contents
- Review Quotes

Introduction
1. The Shifting Politics of the Computational Metaphor
2. Stewart Brand Meets the Cybernetic Counterculture
3. The Whole Earth Catalog as Information Technology
4. Taking the Whole Earth Digital
5. Virtuality and Community on the WELL
6. Networking the New Economy
7. Wired
8. The Triumph of the Network Mode
Notes
Bibliography
Index
“Fred Turner’s richly detailed history of how the alliance between the counterculture and digirati was formed is a fascinating story demonstrating that the computer’s metaphoric implications are never simply the result of the technology itself. Engrossing, deeply researched, and rich with implications, From Counterculture to Cyberculture is highly recommended for anyone interested in how technological objects attain meaning within social and historical contexts.”
“Chapter by chapter, Fred Turner shows inventively and with a deep knowledge of the whole scene how cold war technology met hippie communalism to produce the Whole Earth Catalog, WELL, Wired, and everything that followed. This book is a tour de force of historical digging, sociological analysis, and full understanding.”
“Turner convincingly portrays a cadre of journalists who strove to transform the idea of the computer from a threat during the Cold War into a means of achieving personal freedom in an emerging digital utopia.”
History: American History
Sociology: Formal and Complex Organizations
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