The Information Revolution in Early Modern Europe by Paul Dover
"It is all too common to refer to the present information age as unprecedented. In an occasional exception, authors will draw parallels to the tumultuous centuries following the advent of Gutenberg's printing press (ca. 1440)."
Reviewed by Rachel Midura
Social Media and the Automatic Production of Memory: Classification, Ranking, and Sorting of the Past by Ben Jacobsen and David Beer
"In Social Media and the Automatic Production of Memory, Ben Jacobsen and David Beer examine the pervasive power of social media to intervene in one of the most intimate aspects of our lives: how we remember."
Reviewed by Trang Le
Bitstreams: The Future of Digital Literary Heritage by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum
"Over a decade ago, I was part of the curatorial team at Emory University that was charged with creating an exhibition to celebrate the acquisition of Salman Rushdie's papers. We were excited—and somewhat mystified—to receive Rushdie's old computers in the collection. What exactly should we do with them?"
Reviewed by Roopika Risam
Operation Valhalla: Writings on War, Weapons, and Media by Friedrich Kittler
"Operation Valhalla collects German media theorist Friedrich Kittler's (1943–2011) essays, lectures, and interviews on war, weapons, and media from 1985 to 2009 in an English translation."
Reviewed by Thorsten Ries
A City Is Not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences by Shannon Mattern
"In A City Is Not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences, Shannon Mattern charts futures for urban planning and design that take into account the entangled, embodied knowledges that comprise a city."
Reviewed by Hannah R. Hopkins
Game History and the Local ed. by Melanie Swalwell
"In order to make sense of this important book, readers need to understand what its authors mean by and do with the terms "game history" and "the local." "Game history" is not explicitly described in this collection; however, as we read we do start to see its contours."
Reviewed by Samuel Tobin
Digital Suffragists: Women, the Web, and the Future of Democracy by Marie Tessier
"Marie Tessier's Digital Suffragists: Women, the Web, and the Future of Democracy scrutinizes the history of platforms that limit women's voices and examines how the underrepresentation of women online impacts our digital democracy."
Reviewed by Mariah Wahl
Chinese Internet Buzzwords: Research on Network Languages in Internet Group Communication by Zhou Yan
"Chinese Internet Buzzwords: Research on Network Languages in Internet Group Communication addresses internet catchphrases in Chinese cyberspace since 2010. This book adopts a communication studies approach to the language of the internet while also employing perspectives from cultural studies, linguistics, gender studies, sociology, and politics."
Reviewed by Xuanxuan Tan