Tom Wheeler is the author of From Gutenberg to Google: The History of Our Future. He’s also a businessman and a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Either he can’t write well, or Brookings Institution Press has given up on editing. This is a very poorly done book. Here’s what Mr  »  Read More

I was attracted to From Gutenberg to Google when it first came out. I picked it up to read alongside Niall Ferguson’s The Square and The Tower. Even though they’re very different books, they cover some of the same territory. I like to read more than one account of the same events when I can. I don’t expect this book  »  Read More

Rob Walker’s The Art of Noticing is not like most books. You don’t read it through from front to back. It’s not a collection of things, like short stories or poems that you read and savor. This book is different. It’s like books of science experiments I used to buy when I was a boy. You don’t so much read it as  »  Read More

I expected great things from The Square and The Tower: Networks and Power from The Freemasons to Facebook by Niall Ferguson. I got them. Here’s why this book is worth your time and worth savoring. What’s it about? I’ll let Ferguson tell you himself. The following is from his preface, titled “The Networked  »  Read More