Streaming Culture: Subscription Platforms and the Unending Consumption of Culture by David Arditi
"For several cultural industries, the mode of consumer consumption has shifted from product ownership to product rental in recent decades. We have transitioned from owning a music collection of vinyl records, cassettes, CDs, and even MP3s to paying a monthly fee to have access to a seemingly unending music library via a music streaming service."
Reviewed by Franklin Bridges
Information: A Historical Companion ed. by Ann Blair, Paul Duguid, Anja-Silvia Goeing, and Anthony Grafton
"While information and its related technologies are typically viewed as contemporary phenomena, some scholars have pushed us to consider them as a frame for viewing human and social history across time. In the ways humans have recorded and shared ideas, we can find the continual use of external tools and devices to capture data, spread rules and regulations, and organize a collective around shared thoughts and identities."
Reviewed by Andrew Dillon
Viral Cultures: Activist Archiving in the Age of AIDS by Marika Cifor
"Viral Cultures: Activist Archiving in the Age of AIDS by Marika Cifor is an intensive work of archival studies scholarship that examines and “activates” AIDS archives and the work of artists and activists through original analytics and methodologies toward a more inclusive and generative present and future amid HIV/AIDS."
Reviewed by Camille Coy
Wild Intelligence: Poets’ Libraries and the Politics of Knowledge in Postwar America by M. C. Kinniburgh
"Wild Intelligence: Poets’ Iibraries and the Politics of Knowledge in Postwar America is a fascinating study at the intersection of library science and literary studies or, more precisely, bibliography and poetics. "
Reviewed by Sam Lohmann
The Evolution of the Chinese Internet: Creative Visibility in the Digital Public by Shaohua Guo
"In the past two decades, Chinese society has witnessed the proliferation of internet services and integration of an increasing number of people into the cyber world. Internet access has transformed from the privilege of academics and social elites to ordinary people’s basic right."
Reviewed by Shu Wan
A House for the Struggle: The Black Press & the Built Environment in Chicago by E. James West
"In a House for the Struggle, E. James West details the birth and progress of the Black press in the city of Chicago. He builds an immersive world through the use of archival records, personal accounts, and oral histories of the major personalities and institutions that became the nexus of Black journalism."
Reviewed by Janelle Duke