How the Internet Happened

A narrative history of the commercial internet from the Netscape IPO through the dot-com bust, Google, Facebook and the iPhone — written out of McCullough’s Internet History Podcast interviews.

Why it’s on the list: Named in the “explains an entire industry” thread. Its virtue is chronology: it puts the famous episodes in the order they actually happened, which most retellings do not.

Where I saw it: In Kyle’s “Books To Read” Apple Note, recovered from the reply thread to @WillManidis asking “what is the single best book you can read that will explain an entire industry?” (June 2, 2025). The full recovered list lives on what is the single best book… (tweet).

Connections

• what is the single best book… (tweet) — the thread this came out of; the full recovered list lives there.
• Silicon Valley — the setting.