Interception

A media history of how the UK and US governments have surveilled citizens by intercepting their private communications. It may not be Big Brother (yet), but the state is watching you—watching all of us, in fact—systematically intercepting our private communications and putting them to work in its own interests. In Interception, a media genealogy of the surveillance state at its most intimate, Bernard Keenan investigates the emergence of this practice as a governmental power and the secret role it has played in the development of communication systems and law. His book exposes the complex, largely obscure history of a covert and fundamental connection between the secret powers of the state and the means by which we communicate our everyday lives. Keenan analyzes key moments in this history, from the formation of the postal system to cable networks, satellites, and the internet, with particular attention to the role that media play in determining