Claude S. Fischer is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of To Dwell among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City (1982) and The Urban Experience (1984).

• List of FiguresList of TablesPrefaceCHAPTER ITechnology and Modern LifeCHAPTER 2The Telephone in AmericaCHAPTER 3Educating the PublicCHAPTER 4The Telephone Spreads: National PatternsCHAPTER 5The Telephone Spreads: Local PatternsCHAPTER 6Becoming CommonplaceCHAPTER 7Local Attachment, I89D-I940CHAPTER 8Personal Calls, Personal MeaningsCHAPTER 9ConclusionAPPENDIX ABibliographic EssayAPPENDIX BStatistical Analyses of Telephone and Automobile DistributionAPPENDIX CTelephone Subscription among Iowa Farmers, 1924APPENDIX DSummary of Expenditure Studies by Household Incomeor OccupationAPPENDIX EThe 1918-1919 Cost of Living StudyAPPENDIX FWho Had the Telephone When?APPENDIX GAnalysis of Advertisement DataAPPENDIX HStatistical Analyses for Chapter 7NotesBibliographyIndexPhotograph section follows page 153

"A warning to those who see technology as having clear and far-reaching consequences in American life: Don't use the telephone as an obvious example. From a user-centered view of technological dispersion, the author argues convincingly that the telephone reinforced social and cultural patterns rather than changed them. . . . Well researched, with an excellent bibliography and fascinating endnotes, Fischer's study is likely to be a required purchase for comprehensive collections in sociology, business, and the history of technology. It is accessible, however, to a wider audience because of its readability."