Topic 14 (IT Revolution) Historians

Question 1

Godfrey Hodgson

Answer 1

• challenges the 90s rhetoric that neoliberalism and deregulation established the environment for the IT Revolution to flourish
• refers back to postwar military-industries and the development through government-funded university research at MIT and Stanford as the foundations of new tech

Question 2

Fred Turner

Answer 2

• discusses the connection between 60s counterculture and the development of online forums (like the WELL) as key points for the development of neoconservative ideologies
• centres entrepreneurial spirit (as informed by counterculture) in making the quality of IT developments in the 90s ‘revolutionary’

Question 3

Margaret O’Mara

Answer 3

• also highlights the role of entrepreneurial spirit in the 90s, but emphasises their successful branding (from product to production to ambition for a transformed age)