This is the third and final volume in a broad study about the role of information largely in the Unites States since the early nineteenth century. This book summarizes how information changed since the early 1800s, what it looks like today, including how it is being influenced by such current circumstances as the role of Big Data, artificial intelligence, misinformation on the Internet, and the automation of decision-making by computers using digital and analog information. It is designed to be read by scholars in multiple disciplines and by the general public. It is the byproduct of 30 years of studying the modern role of information. The book includes a broad curated bibliographic essay about the broad subject of modern information.

James W. Cortada is a Senior Research Fellow at the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis. He holds a Ph.D. in modern history and spent nearly 4 decades working at IBM in various sales, managerial, and research positions. His most recent books include Building Blocks of Society: History, Information Ecosystems, and Infrastructures (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), with William Aspray, Authenticity: Understanding Misinformation Through the Study of Heritage Tourism (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), Birth of Modern Facts: How the Information Revolution Transformed Academic Research. Governments, and Businesses (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023), and Today's Facts: Understanding the Current Evolution of Information (Rowman & Littlefield, 2025).