El. knyga: Analog Superpowers: How Twentieth-Century Technology Theft Built the National Security State

A rigorous overview of tensions that emerged between militaries and defense contractors over intellectual property law in the early twentieth century. . . . Epstein peppers her catalogue of stolen inventions and legal disputes with evocative firsthand accounts. * Publishers Weekly * Extraordinary. . . . Deeply researched, meticulously documented, and vividly written, Analog Superpowers is a remarkable achievement of modern history. . . . In todays age of great power competition and rapid technological change related to machine learning, artificial intelligence, and cyber security, it is enlightening to consider previous epochs wherein technology presented challenges and opportunities among the nations vying for the innovation capable of producing military advantage. Epstein has done a valuable service to the profession by delivering such a relevant and instructive history. * Choice * [ An] exhaustive technical and legal history of fire control systems used by navies on both sides of the Atlantic in the early 20th century. . . . Epstein explores how patent lawsgranting a limited monopoly to inventorscollide with military secrecy practices that prevent disclosure to anyone outside of the government. * Library Journal * The story Epstein tells is a compelling one, driven by the drama between Pollen and Dreyer. . . . Her work engages at least three major historiographiestechnological, legal, and militaryand intervenes in a major way in the debates on the origins of the national security state, the rise of American power, and Anglo-American strategic competition. In sum, Analog Superpowers convincingly argues that the roots of the national security state lie in the Second Industrial Revolution rather than the atomic age. * Technology and Culture * While Epsteins work is wide ranging and multifaceted in its touchpoints, of particular interest is the way her research reveals a previously hidden pre-history to the modern regime of export controls, and offers perspective on todays relationship between great powers, the state, and technology. * WorldECR * Epsteins impeccably researched and highly nuanced book, Analog Superpowers, argues convincingly that a study of fire control (i.e. analog computers), which was the cutting edge military technology of its time, opens a window into the intricate national and international politics of innovation, intellectual property protection, and legal as well as illegal technology transfer. . . . Analog Superpowers is a sophisticated and empirically extraordinarily rich study that tells us where todays world of technology competition and control began. But it is more than a mere prehistory. It places its case study firmly in its complex, constantly evolving, contradictory historical context, bringing into view unjustly forgotten historical actors, unearthing the intellectual histories of innovation, secrecy, computing, intellectual property law, and military-civilian relations, and does all of this from a transnational, transatlantic perspective. * H-Diplo * Analog Superpowers is a brilliantand surprisingly grippingtale ripped from history but with real relevance today. Drawing deftly on the tools of economics, law, history, and international relations, Epstein rescues an important story and in doing so reminds us of the insistent tension between innovation and national security. -- Robert M. Chesney, dean of the University of Texas School of Law Brilliant. So very brilliant. I can think of no other working historian today who so seamlessly mixes typically disparate fields as Epstein. Part military history, part history of technology, a story of business and also of law, andoh yesmathematics too, Analog Superpowers demonstrates how modern history should be done. -- Jeffrey A. Engel, author of When the World Seemed New: George H. W. Bush and the End of the Cold War Analog Superpowers offers a compelling look at Anglo-American legal and material reconfigurations of state power and political economy. This deeply researched and elegantly written book explores a critical moment at which the United States sought to seize the mantle of global hegemony from Great Britain. Epstein's careful attention to intersections between knowledges, technologies, and law makes for an innovative and important contribution to historiographies of twentieth century US and British imperialisms and militarisms as well as the fraught relationships between them. -- Mary X. Mitchell, University of Toronto We are in a machine learning arms race to fashion digital computers to emulate analog brainwork that can exceed human capacity. But this is not the first time that analog brain emulators have transformed warfare. In a story straight out of a cyberpunk novel, Epstein shows us how the US Navy pirated Britains successful Argo system in World War I, helped airbrush out its inventors, used secret patents to control it, and then built Americas first military industrial complex. Necessary reading for anyone who wants to understand the shotgun wedding that joined technology to the military state. * Scott Reynolds Nelson, author of Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World * Analog Superpowers is an original and very welcome call to reconsider how scholars approach the relationships among warfare, capitalism, and law. It follows government contractors, legal battles, and a fascinating device very closely, illustrating how the government-sanctioned sidestepping of patent rights shaped Anglo-American national security states in the twentieth century. This book cuts across important archives in a new way and is sure to inspire further work investigating how the relationships between technology and law can help us write histories of secrecy and security. -- Gerardo Con Diaz, author of Software Rights: How Patent Law Transformed Software Development in America