Books

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

 

Theses books are available from Amazon.com, Inc.

 

 

• End of the Line - The Rise and Fall of AT&T by Leslie Cauley. Free Press, Copyright 2005.   ISBN-10: 0743250257.  The author, Leslie Cauley, is a veteran telecom journalist having worked for the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.
   

 

• Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design by Jennifer Bass & Pat Kirkham. Free Press, Copyright 2011.   ISBN-10: 1856697525.  Jennifer Bass is a graphic designer and artist. She has worked at CBS Television in New York and at Sussman/Prejza & Company in Los Angeles. In 1994, she and her husband, Lance Glover, opened their studio, Treehouse Design Partnership in Los Angeles, working in the areas of environmental graphics, identity and book design.
  
  Pat Kirkham is Professor in the History of Design, Decorative Arts and Culture at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design & Culture, New York. She has written and edited a number of books, including Charles and Ray Eames (1998) and Women Designers in the USA 1900-2000 (2001).

This is the first book to be published on one of the greatest American designers of the 20th Century, who was as famous for his work in film as for his corporate identity and graphic work. With more than 1,400 illustrations, many of them never published before and written by the leading design historian Pat Kirkham, this is the definitive study that design and film enthusiasts have been eagerly anticipating. Saul Bass (1920-1996) created some of the most compelling images of American post-war visual culture. Having extended the remit of graphic design to include film titles, he went on to transform the genre. His best known works include a series of unforgettable posters and title sequences for films such as Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo and Otto Preminger's The Man With The Golden Arm and Anatomy of a Murder. He also created some of the most famous logos and corporate identity campaigns of the century, including those for major companies such as AT&T, Quaker Oats, United Airlines and Minolta. His wife and collaborator, Elaine, joined the Bass office in the late 1950s. Together they created an impressive series of award-winning short films, including the Oscar-winning Why Man Creates, as well as an equally impressive series of film titles, ranging from Stanley Kubrick s Spartacus in the early 1960s to Martin Scorsese s Cape Fear and Casino in the 1990s. Designed by Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass's daughter and written by distinguished design historian Pat Kirkham who knew Saul Bass personally, this book is full of images from the Bass archive, providing an in depth account of one of the leading graphic artists of the 20th century.

 

 

• Rape of Ma Bell by Constantine Raymonod Kraus and Alfred W. Duerig. Lyle Stuart, Copyright 1988.   ISBN-10: 081840468X. (Link leads to book reviews)
   

 

• A voice in the wilderness by Constantine Raymonod Kraus, Copyright 1996.   ASIN: B0006FB92C. (Link leads to book reviews)
   

 

• TELE-Tales - A SURVEY OF SERVICE by A.J. Ryan, Copyright 2006.
  ISBN-10: 1412014522. (paperback). True tales of situations met and often endured while living a wandering life, the story describes the career of a Bell Canada employee through promising beginnings to humiliation, defeat and revival after his shock is mistakenly understood as his standing in the way of a plan to cover up a tragic act of negligence.
  
   

• 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. Gives a dark view of Ma Bell but interesting reading nonetheless. ISBN-10: 0809280086. (hardcover).
  
   

• "Manufacturing the Future - A History of Western Electric" by Stephen B. Adams and Orville R. Butler. Excellent book!  Published in 1999 by Cambridge University Press. ISBN-10: 0521651182. (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-10: 0060105402. (hardcover).
  
   

• "Bell Labs - Life in the Crown Jewel" by Narain Gehani. First published in 2003 by Silicon Press. ISBN-10: 0929306279. (hardcover).
   

"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.

• Technologies of Freedom
  Ithiel de Sola Pool, 1983
  Cambridge: Belknap/Harvard. ISBN-10: 0674872339. (paperback).
   
   

• The Deal of the Century: The Breakup of AT&T
  Steve Coll, 1986
  New York: Atheneum. ASIN: B00165FWH4 (paperback).
  
   

• Signals: The Telephone and Beyond (Revised edition)
  John R. Pierce and Michael A. Noll
  San Francisco: Freeman. ISBN-10: 0716713365 (paperback).
  
   

• America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940
  Claude S. Fischer, 1992
  Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN-10: 0520086473 (paperback).
  
   

• The Telecommunications Revolution: Past, Present and Future
  Sapolsky, Crane, Neuman, and Noam, 1992
  London & New York: Routledge. ISBN-10: 0415067715 (paperback).
  
   

• The American Telegrapher: A Social History, 1860 - 1900
  Edwin Gabler, 1988
  New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. ISBN-10: 0813512859 (paperback).
  
   

• The Biggest Company On Earth: A Profile of AT&T
  Sonny Kleinfield, 1981
  New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN-10: 0030453267 (hardcover).
  
   

• I'm Sorry, The Monopoly You Have Reached Is Not In Service...
  K. Aubrey Stone, 1973
  New York: Ballantine/Grassroots. ISBN-10: 0345030753 (paperback).
  
   

• Monopoly
  Joseph C. Goulden, 1968
  New York: Putnam. ISBN-10: 0671771957 (paperback).
  
   

• In One Man's Life: Being Chapters from the Personal and Business Career of Theodore N. Vail
  Albert B. Paine, 1921
  New York: Harper. ISBN-10: 1112191011 (paperback).
  
   

• Disconnecting Bell: The Impact of the AT&T Divestiture
  Harry M. Shooshan II (Editor), 1984
  Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press. ISBN-10: 0080301738 (hardcover).
  
   

• The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier
  Bruce Sterling, 1992
  New York: Bantam. ISBN-10: 055356370X (paperback).
  
   

• The First Amendment in the Information Age
  Joel M. Bolstein, 1987
  Washington, D.C.: Freedom of Expression Foundation & The Media Institute.
  ISBN-10: 0937790362 (paperback).
  
   

• The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier
  Howard Rheingold, 1993
  Menlo Park, CA: Addison Wesley. ISBN-10: 0262681218 (paperback).
  
   

• 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.
  ASIN: B002EG2G3W (hardcover).
  
   

• AT&T -- The Story of Industrial Conquest
  by N. R. Danielian, The Vanguard Press, New York, 1939.
  ISBN-10: 0405060386 (hardcover).
  
   

• The Telephone in a Changing World
  by Marion May Dilts, Longmans, Green and Co., New York, 1941.
  ASIN: B0007E2OI0 (unknown binding).
  
   

• Communications in the World of the Future
  by Hal Hellman, M. Evans and Company, New York, 1969.
  ASIN: B004BIWQ3Q (paperback).
  
   

• Alexander Graham Bell
  by Catherine MacKenzie, Houghton Mifflen Co., Boston and New York, 1928.
  ISBN-10: 0766143856 (paperback).
  
   

• The Bell Telephone System
  by Arthur W. Page, Harper & Brothers, New York and London, 1929.
  ASIN: B0006APE0A (hardcover).
  
  
   

• Beginnings of Telephony
  by F. L. Rhodes, Harper & Brothers, New York and London, 1929.
  ASIN: B000TZT2LE (hardcover).
  
   

• Views on Public Questions
  by Theodore N. Vail, privately printed, 1917. ISBN-10: 1152102915 (paperback).
  
   

• For Noteworthy Public Service, The Theodore N. Vail National Awards
  published by the Bell System, New York, 1950. ASIN: B000NSBHEM (hard cover).
  
   

• Exploring Life, The Autobiography of Thomas A. Watson
  by D. Appleton and Company, New York and London, 1926.
  ASIN: B00270C67Q (paperback).
   

• Muddling Through, A selective autobiography by John M. Fraser
  by CreateSpace, Pueblo, CO, 2009. 
  ISBN-10: 1438258496 (paperback).
   

 

TECHNICAL BOOKS

• Telecommunications Primer
  G. Langley, 1983
  London: Pitman
  ISBN-10: 0273601571 (paperback).
  
   

• Understanding Communications Systems
  Don L. Cannon and Gerald Luecke
  Dallas: Texas Instruments
  ISBN-10: 0672270161 (paperback).
   

• 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
  ASIN: B003X5CIEU (hardcover).
  
  
  National Service in War and Peace (1925-1975)
  M. D. Fagen, Editor
  Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. 1978
  xv+757 pages
  ISBN-10: 0932764002 (hardcover).
  
  
  Switching Technology (1925-1975)
  A. E. Joel, Jr. et al
  G.F. Schincler, Editor
  Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. 1982
  xii+639 pages
  ISBN-10: 0932764029 (hardcover).
  
  
  Physical Sciences (1925-1980)
  S. Millman, Editor
  Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. 1983
  xi+674 pages
  ISBN-10: 0932764037 (hardcover).
  
  
  Communications Sciences (1925-1980)
  S. Millman, Editor
  Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. 1984
  xxii+521 pages
  ISBN-10: 0932764061 (hardcover).
  
  
  Transmission Technology (1925-1975)
  E. F. O'Neill, Editor
  Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. 1985
  xv+812 pages
  ASIN: B000WW6U32 (hardcover).
  
  
  Electronics Technology (1925-1975)
  F. M. Smits, Editor
  Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. 1985
  xiv+370 pages

  ISBN-10: 093276407X (hardcover).
  
   

MISCELLANEOUS

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