The internet is the dominant communication medium of the 21st century. Not least the events surrounding the revelations of Edward Snowden have shown that it has evolved into a network of both freedom and surveillance. But where do its origins lie? Martin Schmitt offers a much-needed re-evaluation of the history of the internet by historicizing its emergence in the USA from 1967 to 1975. He illustrates how the internet was conceived as a cybernetic system during the Cold War, influenced by counterculture, science, and the military, and that from the very beginning it served both emancipatory and surveillance tendencies. Only by looking at its history can the functioning of the internet in the present be understood.