The Fall of the Bell System traces and analyzes the events that resulted in the breakup of AT&T, the largest corporate reorganization in history. This reorganization resulted from a mix of deliberate design and uncontrollable cumulative processes. This study reveals much about the internal decision making of a major business enterprise and explains much about how private and public interests combine to shape corporate and public policy in late twentieth-century America.

List of tables, figures, and plates; Preface; Acknowledgments; Note on sources; Introduction; 1. Setting the stage; 2. Competition comes to the Bell System; 3. Action and reaction; 4. The conflict broadens; 5. Fighting on all fronts; 6. Reaching agreement; 7. Creating the new order; 8. Reflections; Index.