The book explains the origins of the information society in part from the need to manage and control the production of an industrial society.

Part 1. Living systems, technology, and the evolution of control. Programming and control: the essential life process -- Evolution of control: culture and society / Part II. Industrialization, processing speed, and the crisis of control. From tradition to rationality: distributing control -- Toward industrialization: controlling energy and speed -- Industrial revolution and the crisis of control / Part III. Toward an information society: from control crisis to control revolution. Revolution in control of mass production and distribution -- Revolution in control of mass consumption -- Revolution in generalized control: data processing and bureaucracy -- Conclusions: Control as engine of the information society.