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An Army of Davids: How Markets And Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, And Other Goliaths Hardcover – January 1, 2006
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There was a time in the not-too-distant past when large companies and powerful governments reigned supreme over the little guy. But new technologies are empowering individuals like never before, and the Davids of the world-the amateur journalists, musicians, and small businessmen and women-are suddenly making a huge economic and social impact.
In Army of Davids, author Glenn Reynolds, the man behind the immensely popular Instapundit.com, provides an in-depth, big-picture point-of-view for a world where the small guys matter more and more. Reynolds explores the birth and growth of the individual's surprisingly strong influence in: arts and entertainment, anti-terrorism, nanotech and space research, and much more.
The balance of power between the individual and the organization is finally evening out. And it's high time the Goliaths of the world pay attention, because, as this book proves, an army of Davids is on the rise.
"George Orwell feared that technology would enable dictators to enslave the masses. Glenn Reynolds shows that technology can empower individuals to determine their own futures and to defeat those who would enslave us. This is a book of profound importance-and also a darn good read.-MICHAEL BARONE, senior writer at U.S. News & World Report and author of Hard America, Soft America
"Blogger extraordinaire Glenn Reynolds shows how average Americans can use new technologies to overcome the twin demons of corporate greed and incompetent government. Reynolds is a compelling evangelist for the power of the individual to change our world.-ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, author of Pigs at the Trough and Fanatics and Fools
A smart, fun tour of a major social and economic trend. From home-brewed beer to blogging, Glenn Reynolds is an engaging, uniquely qualified guide to the do-it-yourself movements transforming business, politics, and media.-VIRGINIA POSTREL, Forbes columnist and author of The Future and its Enemies and The Substance of Style
A student in her dorm room now commands the resources of a multi-million dollar music recording or movie editing studio of not so many years ago. The tools of creativity have been democratized and the tools of production are not far behind (Karl Marx take note). Glenn Reynolds's beguiling new book tells the insightful story of how an 'army of Davids' is inheriting the Earth, leaving a trail of obsolete business models not to mention cultural, economic, and political institutions in its wake.-RAY KURZWEIL, scientist, inventor, and author of several books including The Singularity is Near
'Must-read,' 'gotta have,' 'culture-changing' . . . I am suspicious of blurbs with such overused plugs. But Glenn Reynolds's An Army of Davids is in fact a must-read new book that you gotta have if you are going to understand the culture-changing forces that are unleashed and at work across the globe.-HUGH HEWITT, syndicated talk radio host and author of Blog and Painting the Map Red
Glenn Reynolds has written an essential book for understanding how technology and markets are creating a bottom-up shift in power to ordinary people that is changing business, government, and our world. Packed with fresh ideas and adorned with graceful prose, An Army of Davids is a masterpiece.-JOE TRIPPI, author of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
"I cannot think of a better book for the average reader to understand just how the Web and other digital technologies are reversing the polarities of modern society-restoring many features of daily life lost with the Industrial Revolution, while at the same time inventing powerful new cultural institutions. And for those of us who make careers out of watching this transformation, no book
- Print length289 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThomas Nelson Inc
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 2006
- Dimensions5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-101595550542
- ISBN-13978-1595550545
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Product details
- Publisher : Thomas Nelson Inc; First Edition (January 1, 2006)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 289 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1595550542
- ISBN-13 : 978-1595550545
- Item Weight : 14.7 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,106,849 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #19,957 in Political Ideologies & Doctrines (Books)
- #22,867 in Political Science (Books)
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Composed of twelve chapters, An Army of Davids examines our society from the bottom up. The analysis begins with the growing number of small businesses, specifically work-at-home jobs, in contrast Dilbert type office jobs. Reynolds suggests that this shift will continue and will be beneficial as a crime deterrent and for more stable families. Moving on, Reynolds looks at recent developments in music technology, the war on terror, and media as instances of individuals becoming more powerful and important.
After a brief interlude on good blogging, Reynolds continues by making the case that war video games have become the best educational tool for military history and tactics. He then moves on to discuss the possibilities available from the development of nano and age-prolonging technologies. The final chapters explore our potential for space exploration and reaching "singularity." Singularity, I think, refers to the point in time where technological advancement occurs beyond the grasp of human intelligence.
While an Army of Davids has much to offer, it also has a few problems. For one, the discussion of singularity went mostly over my head, and I think that's mostly because I couldn't find a clear definition in the book that could help make sense of the discussion. From time to time, some topics seemed to steer off course (portions of video gaming, nanotechnology, and space exploration come to mind) and in the back of my mind I questioned their relevance as I read.
I disagreed with a few points here and there, but the most troubling were statements about teens and pornography: "But, despite continued warnings from concerned mothers' groups, teenagers are less violent, and--according to some, if not all, studies--they're having less sex, not withstanding the predictions of many concerned people that such exposure would have the opposite effect. More virtual sex and violence would seem to go along with less real sex and violence; certainly with less pregnancy and violence." (149-150). The argument that Reynolds appears to make is that this is reason for considering deregulating pornography. However, assuming his premises hold up, he fails to consider psychological impact apart from promiscuity. What happens when these teens get married, if they do? How would this affect their marriage and families? How will these teens treat women? I fail to see any good possible answers.
Despite these shortcomings, An Army of Davids by Glenn Reynolds is a very intriguing book. It expanded my thought into areas I haven't considered, and for that I'm appreciative. Reynolds expertise and background make An Army of Davids an interesting and enjoyable book overall.
But judging from "An Army of Davids", those bloggy qualities that have made Reynolds an online force don't carry over well into the book world. Reynolds' conversational style serves him well on the Web, where his analytical one-liners and nuggets of insight perfectly suit today's scroll-and-scan online attention span.
"Army" is basically a collection of lengthy blog posts united by the theme that technology is increasingly empowering individuals socially, economically and politically -- for better and for worse. Reynolds makes this argument most effectively in the first half of the book, when the discussion focuses on blogging and media. The second half ventures into more fantastic territory by touching on biotech, nanotech and space travel, and it's here where the book transmogrifies more into futuristic musings about Reynolds' pet causes: a cure for ageing, homebrew molecular manufacturing, and nuclear powered spacecraft (that's bombs, not reactors). All fascinating stuff, but I'm still not sure how that fits on the same page as citizen journalism and home music studios.
That brings me to my main problem with "Army": in the end it's less a systematic study of the probable areas where technology enables average people to nudge society in new directions than it is a collection of stuff that Glenn Reynolds finds really cool and sort of crams under this broad umbrella of individual empowerment.
One specific complaint I have focuses on the chapter on space travel, titled: "Space: It's Not Just For Governments Anymore". Reynolds rightly points out the deep flaws in our NASA-oriented, top-down approach to space. He illustrates how entrepreneurs like Burt Ratan to Jeff Bezos and John Carmack will drive the next era of spaceflight, at costs that are a tiny fraction of the government's approach.
But in the next breath, Reynolds laments how we are in danger of losing the spacerace to China, which is pursuing exactly the big government, highly secretive, top-down approach that has led the U.S. to a cosmic dead-end. Not only that, Reynolds speculates the Chinese could beat us with the aforementioned nuclear bomb-powered spacecraft, an approach that was abandoned by the U.S. decades ago due to significant technological, environmental and diplomatic risks. China has made exactly two manned spaceflights, both using 1950s era technology copied from the Soviets. Their nuclear arsenal is limited to a few score of warheads. But suddenly they are going to find enough fissionable material to create the thousands of bombs needed to power such a spacecraft, and moreover manage to test prototypes in complete secrecy without triggering any suspicious seismographical readings? It just doesn't compute.
I also find it odd that "Army" was published as a traditional dead-tree book. You'd think that Reynolds' enthusiasm for cheap new technologies would lead him to offer it as a PDF download or even an e-book. Of course, online media is not a replacement for print media, any more than TV was a replacement for radio. And no one can begrudge a desire to see if it's possible to translate online success into a publishing one. But it would have been the ultimate validation of the very technologies Reynolds spends 270 pages endorsing.
Well, according to Glenn Reynolds, not anymore. Not when the internet and inexpensive blog hosting services put news reporting in the hands of ordinary people; people with time and talent but not capital can go into the pundit business themselves. Technology has neutralized many of the advantages of capital. Army of Davids explains not how this happened but why it happened and why it will move out in the future to the other arts and to other commercial products. He is an optimist who believes that people will have much greater control of their lives in the future. Control of all aspects of their lives.
I bought this book because I'm a great admirer of his Instapundit weblog, which reflects the interests of a well and widely read man. He is a later day Benjamin Franklin or Jefferson in the scope of his curiosity. Well Worth it



