Richard R. John
@rrjohnr.bsky.social
I teach history and communications at Columbia University. I am working on American anti-monopoly thought and practice, 1760-present. For more details, click on my website. https://journalism.columbia.edu/faculty/richard-r-john
Annals of Anti-Monopoly: I will be in DC on 25 September to give a talk at George Mason University. The public is invited. Teaser: why was George Washington furious at the reactionary politics of his fellow Virginian George Mason? Was Washington on to something? Is it time to…cancel George Mason?
September 12, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Annals of Anti-Monopoly: I will be in DC on 25 September to give a talk at George Mason University. The public is invited. Teaser: why was George Washington furious at the reactionary politics of his fellow Virginian George Mason? Was Washington on to something? Is it time to…cancel George Mason?
Annals of anti-monopoly: This just dropped today. When did Americans start seriously worrying about media concentration? Hint: in the 1930s. How did this debate shape media coverage of the Second World War?
How Media Concentration in the Age of Radio Prefigured Today’s Big Tech Debate - ProMarket
In the 1930s, staffers at the newly established Federal Communications Commission devised a novel rationale for limiting network power in radio, telephony, and the press. While much has changed since ...
www.promarket.org
June 17, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Annals of anti-monopoly: This just dropped today. When did Americans start seriously worrying about media concentration? Hint: in the 1930s. How did this debate shape media coverage of the Second World War?
Annals of anti-monopoly: Here is my review (critical yet appreciative) of Dan Schiller’s monumental history of 20th c. U.S. telecommunications policy — forty years in the making. Schiller is particularly suggestive on the FCC in the 1930s, a neglected topic, and on the efficacy of consent decrees.
Crossed Wires: The Conflicted History of U.S. Telecommunications, from the Post Office to the Internet. By Dan Schiller
How should we write the history of communications? In Crossed Wires, Dan Schiller provides us with one answer to this question. In a sprawling, often perce
academic.oup.com
May 25, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Annals of anti-monopoly: Here is my review (critical yet appreciative) of Dan Schiller’s monumental history of 20th c. U.S. telecommunications policy — forty years in the making. Schiller is particularly suggestive on the FCC in the 1930s, a neglected topic, and on the efficacy of consent decrees.
Announcing an open search for a position in Columbia’s Ph. D. program in communications
“We are particularly interested in candidates pursuing pioneering research agendas in: Science, Technology, and Society (STS); media law and policy; media history; global media….”
apply.interfolio.com/162364
“We are particularly interested in candidates pursuing pioneering research agendas in: Science, Technology, and Society (STS); media law and policy; media history; global media….”
apply.interfolio.com/162364
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
January 25, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Announcing an open search for a position in Columbia’s Ph. D. program in communications
“We are particularly interested in candidates pursuing pioneering research agendas in: Science, Technology, and Society (STS); media law and policy; media history; global media….”
apply.interfolio.com/162364
“We are particularly interested in candidates pursuing pioneering research agendas in: Science, Technology, and Society (STS); media law and policy; media history; global media….”
apply.interfolio.com/162364
Annals of anti-monopoly: “…the safer course…decentralization of power, [but] the uniform power to regulate these enterprises [eg railroads], if they partake in the least of a monopoly character, must be equally extensive with the territory they occupy.” Sterne, _Constitutional History_ (1882).
January 2, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Annals of anti-monopoly: “…the safer course…decentralization of power, [but] the uniform power to regulate these enterprises [eg railroads], if they partake in the least of a monopoly character, must be equally extensive with the territory they occupy.” Sterne, _Constitutional History_ (1882).
Annals of anti-monopoly: historian Shane Hamilton explains how shifts in the U.S. food distribution networks led to the blocked Kroger-Albertsons merger.
A little piece with Errol Schweizer (former VP of Whole Foods) on the historical significance of the blocked Kroger-Albertsons merger grocerynerd.substack.com/p/grocery-up...
Grocery Update #39: The High Cost of Cheap Food. And The Historic Halting Of A Grocery Merger.
Also: An Autumn Apple Smackdown. Because We Love Apples.
grocerynerd.substack.com
December 19, 2024 at 9:54 PM
Annals of anti-monopoly: historian Shane Hamilton explains how shifts in the U.S. food distribution networks led to the blocked Kroger-Albertsons merger.
Annals of anti-monopoly:
“Plutocracy is its own kind of dictatorship. When companies larger, wealthier and more powerful than most world governments threaten individual liberty with coercive private taxation and regulation, it threatens our way of life."
Jonathan Kanter, antitrust head. DOJ, 2024
“Plutocracy is its own kind of dictatorship. When companies larger, wealthier and more powerful than most world governments threaten individual liberty with coercive private taxation and regulation, it threatens our way of life."
Jonathan Kanter, antitrust head. DOJ, 2024
December 19, 2024 at 4:07 PM
Annals of anti-monopoly:
“Plutocracy is its own kind of dictatorship. When companies larger, wealthier and more powerful than most world governments threaten individual liberty with coercive private taxation and regulation, it threatens our way of life."
Jonathan Kanter, antitrust head. DOJ, 2024
“Plutocracy is its own kind of dictatorship. When companies larger, wealthier and more powerful than most world governments threaten individual liberty with coercive private taxation and regulation, it threatens our way of life."
Jonathan Kanter, antitrust head. DOJ, 2024
Annals of anti-monopoly: The meaning of monopoly has shifted over time. Pete Roady’s _Contest over National Security_ shows how in the 1930s and 1940s the related catch phrase “ national security” was stripped of its association with domestic reform.
wwwww.hup.harvard.edu/books/97806742…
wwwww.hup.harvard.edu/books/97806742…
https://wwwww.hup.harvard.edu/books/97806742…
December 7, 2024 at 5:51 PM
Annals of anti-monopoly: The meaning of monopoly has shifted over time. Pete Roady’s _Contest over National Security_ shows how in the 1930s and 1940s the related catch phrase “ national security” was stripped of its association with domestic reform.
wwwww.hup.harvard.edu/books/97806742…
wwwww.hup.harvard.edu/books/97806742…
Annals of anti-monopoly: how did lawmaker John Sherman (whose name is today linked with the famous federal anti-monopoly law) try to reign in “Big Tech”? What forgotten legislation did he craft? And…why did it matter? I explored these topics in a recent piece for HNN.
www.hnn.us/article/the-...
www.hnn.us/article/the-...
The Other Sherman’s March
How the younger brother of the famous general set out to destroy the scourge of monopoly power.
www.hnn.us
November 21, 2024 at 7:17 PM
Annals of anti-monopoly: how did lawmaker John Sherman (whose name is today linked with the famous federal anti-monopoly law) try to reign in “Big Tech”? What forgotten legislation did he craft? And…why did it matter? I explored these topics in a recent piece for HNN.
www.hnn.us/article/the-...
www.hnn.us/article/the-...
Annals of anti-monopoly: my piece on how 20th c. telephone publicists shaped the history books, and set up a major center for the study of U.S. history at Harvard. Can expertise be mobilized to promote the political agenda of Big Tech? History says yes.
www.promarket.org/2024/09/13/h...
www.promarket.org/2024/09/13/h...
How Tech Giants Make History - ProMarket
Richard R. John recounts how in the twentieth century the once-mighty Bell System, whose descendants include today’s Verizon and AT&T, waged a powerful decades-long public relations campaign, includin...
www.promarket.org
September 14, 2024 at 3:14 PM
Annals of anti-monopoly: my piece on how 20th c. telephone publicists shaped the history books, and set up a major center for the study of U.S. history at Harvard. Can expertise be mobilized to promote the political agenda of Big Tech? History says yes.
www.promarket.org/2024/09/13/h...
www.promarket.org/2024/09/13/h...
Annals of anti-monopoly: I join Kathryn Brownell and Jeannette Estruth in Washington, D.C., on 6 June for a congressional briefing on federal media policy. My topic is federal regulation of the mail, the telegraph, telephone, and radio. Details below.
www.historians.org/news-and-adv...
www.historians.org/news-and-adv...
Congressional Briefings
The AHA’s Congressional Briefings series seeks to provide Congressional staff members, journalists, and other interested parties with the historical background to topics of current concern.
www.historians.org
June 4, 2024 at 10:01 PM
Annals of anti-monopoly: I join Kathryn Brownell and Jeannette Estruth in Washington, D.C., on 6 June for a congressional briefing on federal media policy. My topic is federal regulation of the mail, the telegraph, telephone, and radio. Details below.
www.historians.org/news-and-adv...
www.historians.org/news-and-adv...
Anti-Monopoly Roundtable Today— featuring Tim Wu, Bill Novak, Kate Andrias, Suresh Naidu, and…myself. Click below for the registration information — with the Zoom link. We will be discussing Crane and Novak, ed., _Antimonopoly and American Democracy_. events.columbia.edu/cal/event/even…
April 22, 2024 at 2:20 PM
Anti-Monopoly Roundtable Today— featuring Tim Wu, Bill Novak, Kate Andrias, Suresh Naidu, and…myself. Click below for the registration information — with the Zoom link. We will be discussing Crane and Novak, ed., _Antimonopoly and American Democracy_. events.columbia.edu/cal/event/even…
Annals of anti-monopoly: “[Brandeis] wanted government action not only to destroy bigness but affirmatively to protect smallness—even, if necessary, at expense of competition.” Schlesinger, _Politics of Upheaval_p. 388.
January 13, 2024 at 6:18 PM
Annals of anti-monopoly: “[Brandeis] wanted government action not only to destroy bigness but affirmatively to protect smallness—even, if necessary, at expense of competition.” Schlesinger, _Politics of Upheaval_p. 388.
David Donald developed his thesis in _Liberty and Union_, a stimulating, if neglected, survey of 19th c US public life that revealed the strengths AND the weaknesses of the justly criticized “party period” model, a legacy of Cold War-era assumptions about the essential coherence of US public life.
Rachel Sheldon’s fine new coauthored essay in the _JAH_ is helping 19th c. US historians to move beyond the “party period” synthesis (championed among others by my mentor David Donald). Party competition for Donald helped to promote unity (along with faith in the Constitution and popular oratory).
🗃️ 2) Some of the most exciting work on the 19th c is in the history of statebuilding, incl by @gauthamrao.bsky.social @rrjohnr.bsky.social @arielron.bsky.social, that often fit awkwardly w/ the party system model. A new understanding of 19th c parties opens up ways to rethink that relationship 6/
January 7, 2024 at 11:43 AM
David Donald developed his thesis in _Liberty and Union_, a stimulating, if neglected, survey of 19th c US public life that revealed the strengths AND the weaknesses of the justly criticized “party period” model, a legacy of Cold War-era assumptions about the essential coherence of US public life.
Rachel Sheldon’s fine new coauthored essay in the _JAH_ is helping 19th c. US historians to move beyond the “party period” synthesis (championed among others by my mentor David Donald). Party competition for Donald helped to promote unity (along with faith in the Constitution and popular oratory).
🗃️ 2) Some of the most exciting work on the 19th c is in the history of statebuilding, incl by @gauthamrao.bsky.social @rrjohnr.bsky.social @arielron.bsky.social, that often fit awkwardly w/ the party system model. A new understanding of 19th c parties opens up ways to rethink that relationship 6/
January 7, 2024 at 11:26 AM
Rachel Sheldon’s fine new coauthored essay in the _JAH_ is helping 19th c. US historians to move beyond the “party period” synthesis (championed among others by my mentor David Donald). Party competition for Donald helped to promote unity (along with faith in the Constitution and popular oratory).
Ben: 8-10 is pretty normal for me. But I straddle two Ph.D. granting programs — so that might be a bit on the high end.
People who teach (history or similar) in PhD-granting departments: how many student committees (orals, dissertation proposal, or dissertation) do you typically sit in a year?
December 13, 2023 at 6:38 PM
Ben: 8-10 is pretty normal for me. But I straddle two Ph.D. granting programs — so that might be a bit on the high end.
Annals of anti-monopoly: can the history of the remarkably successful regulation (municipal, state, and federal) of the Bell System provide insight into the Graham-Warren proposal for the regulation of Big Tech? Hint: yes. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
November 27, 2023 at 3:38 PM
Annals of anti-monopoly: can the history of the remarkably successful regulation (municipal, state, and federal) of the Bell System provide insight into the Graham-Warren proposal for the regulation of Big Tech? Hint: yes. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Noble’s _Religion of Technology_ is eminently teachable — but I agree — there is much more to be done.
There's much to be gained from revisiting the nexus of religion and technology; David Noble surveyed some of the territory but there's much much more.
November 22, 2023 at 5:32 AM
Noble’s _Religion of Technology_ is eminently teachable — but I agree — there is much more to be done.
Carrier pigeons as a motive power for long distance communications…today!
Internet speeds have come a long way since the days of the dial-up modem, but sometimes you can’t beat the millennia-old method of carrier pigeon.
At certain data volumes and distances, the pigeon is a quicker option for large swaths of rural America.
At certain data volumes and distances, the pigeon is a quicker option for large swaths of rural America.
Pigeons are still (sometimes) faster than your internet
Internet speeds have come a long way since the days of the dial-up modem, but sometimes you can’t beat the millennia-old method of carrier pigeon.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 15, 2023 at 7:13 PM
Carrier pigeons as a motive power for long distance communications…today!
Annals of anti-monopoly: Now in print. How we might reframe the monopoly question — anti-monopoly as a mode on inquiry (like liberalism, socialism, or republicanism) rather than a reflexive grievance: academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/...
Reframing the Monopoly Question
This essay surveys the main currents of anti-monopoly thought in the period between the American Revolution and World War I, a timespan that has come to be known as the long nineteenth century. It mak...
academiccommons.columbia.edu
October 30, 2023 at 12:45 PM
Annals of anti-monopoly: Now in print. How we might reframe the monopoly question — anti-monopoly as a mode on inquiry (like liberalism, socialism, or republicanism) rather than a reflexive grievance: academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/...
Susie Pak had written on Morgan’s financial network; Jean Strouse is the go-to author for his cultural milieu; don’t overlook Vincent Carosso on his business activities
I realize that I need to learn more, in depth about J.P. Morgan. Are there any good recent studies of him? Trying to locate his religion in the context of his politics, business & cultural activities-but I'd rather find out more about the last 3. @kevinmkruse.bsky.social @thetattooedprof.bsky.social
October 27, 2023 at 2:21 AM
Susie Pak had written on Morgan’s financial network; Jean Strouse is the go-to author for his cultural milieu; don’t overlook Vincent Carosso on his business activities
Now in print _Antimonopoly and American Democracy_, with essays by Richard White, Naomi Lamoreaux, Daniel Crane, Bill Novak, myself, and others. It high time we “reframed” the monopoly question to decenter consumer welfare and turn attention to democracy, freedom, and justice.
October 25, 2023 at 1:04 PM
Now in print _Antimonopoly and American Democracy_, with essays by Richard White, Naomi Lamoreaux, Daniel Crane, Bill Novak, myself, and others. It high time we “reframed” the monopoly question to decenter consumer welfare and turn attention to democracy, freedom, and justice.
Annals of anti-monopoly: Horace Greeley, 1851: “Secure to each man so much land as one may use, and preserve the residue for the use and benefit of all….Savage improvidence and want of forecast are hardly more pernicious than civilized monopoly and exclusion; a wise policy would shun them both.”
October 19, 2023 at 3:42 AM
Annals of anti-monopoly: Horace Greeley, 1851: “Secure to each man so much land as one may use, and preserve the residue for the use and benefit of all….Savage improvidence and want of forecast are hardly more pernicious than civilized monopoly and exclusion; a wise policy would shun them both.”
Seth: good question. Answer: yes. I recommend that prospective Ph.D. students consult with prospective mentors via email, or (if they can visit in person) by setting up a meeting in office hours, and that they also reach out to current Ph.D. students who are in the same program, including mentees.
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Question, esp. for historians who teach at places with PhD programs. Is it ok for prospective grad students to get in touch with professors they're interested in working with? Back in the Coolidge administration when I was applying I did this, but I'm not sure it's still acceptable practice.
October 18, 2023 at 8:11 AM
Seth: good question. Answer: yes. I recommend that prospective Ph.D. students consult with prospective mentors via email, or (if they can visit in person) by setting up a meeting in office hours, and that they also reach out to current Ph.D. students who are in the same program, including mentees.
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