Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Apple
Android
Windows Phone
Android
To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
New from Michael Savage Michael Savage reveals why we have an infected political system, and what we can now do to nurse the country back to health. Learn more
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead is a magnificent novel chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. See more
Anonymous is almost certainly not what you think it is. You have to live it to understand it, its implications, its functioning, and its place in society. Gabrielle Coleman lived it, as a fully disclosed academic anthropologist. This is her story as much as theirs.
The structure of Anonymous is like the structure of the internet: multiple channels, multiple entry points, self healing patches, and lots of redundancy. (Also lots of swearing, lots of personal attacks, and lots of suspicions. Testosterone is involved.) This enables a totally flat organization to achieve in minutes what giant corporations and government take years to effect. The exhilaration, the joy, the satisfaction participants savor is incomparable. Anonymous is far more than a labor of love; it is idealists executing on their dreams. Everyone should be jealous.
Gabriella Coleman hitched a ride on some of those dreams, and was clearly jealous. She goes so far as to express the compulsion, the adrenaline rush, and the thrill of watching it happen live. The characters are as richly detailed as any in fiction. There are heroes and villains, victims and survivors. There are plot twists and subplots. It covers roughly four years in which Coleman got close enough to many of the characters as to meet in person, something totally alien to the whole concept. Often as not, they confounded her assumptions.
The story is a classic bell curve. At first there is confusion and commotion and random, unconcerted activity. They were in it for the entertainment value. As the participants refined their goals and their skills, they won many battles, notably Scientology, where they earned their stripes. They then took on and down whole governments.Read more ›
2 Comments
49 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
If I could give this 3.5 stars, I would. It took me a while to put my finger on why, since this book is an excellently written and meticulously researched account of Anonymous. Anthropologist Gabriella Coleman takes a long, detailed look into it--she clearly put a ton of time into this, and teased out the different threads of this loosely associated network/movement. The book is extremely well-researched and detailed, and cleared up a lot of confusing history re: Anonymous by teasing out different factions, fiefdoms, cliques, and even time periods and evolutions within the ragtag group of hackers, activists, tricksters, and trolls.
There were a few aspects I found problematic. First and foremost, this account seemed to have a bit of an identity crisis. It fails as a purely anthropological text. Coleman struggled and in many ways, I believe, failed to maintain academic detachment/journalistic distance from her sources. She seemed very eager to impress them, make sure she had cred, prove that she understood the lulz, etc. When she detailed meetings or conversations with Anons, she seemed extremely close to many of her sources, looked like she was constantly trying to prove herself, and I don't think ever expressed much disagreement. It was unclear whether she was doing this to maintain her sources, or whether her views were colored by her sources, but it still seemed like it may have colored her perspective a bit.
It's of course extremely likely that she was already very sympathetic to Anonymous-- her opinions were likely what drew her to this project in the first place--and it's hard *not* to love Anonymous or at least many of the antics done under that banner.Read more ›
Comment
22 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
I would give this more stars if I could. It's one of my best reads for 2014. I loved the writing style and LOVED the working in of broader themes that links Anonymous within the perspective of a society's culture. I was riveted. It was fascinating. It was also shocking at how much they have answered the need for political protest with all the oversteps the government has taken. I'm an old school war protester and I have to say that our generation has had to do some soul searching about effectiveness. What's the point of being on the right side of history if you can't change things? How do you protest things that aren't even explicit or debated upon as a country? How do you bring them to the forefront so they can be debated? It's inspiring to see at least some answers and innovations coming from a younger, vibrant generation. This book introduced me to so many new topics and ways to get involved or at least see what activists are doing for change. Thank you for such a meaningful, thoughtful, and insightful book. I highlighted passages and will re-read for inspiration and ideas!
Comment
24 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
This is a meticulously researched and documented book about the group Anonymous, including several notorious hackers. The author in an anthropologist and wrote the book in a style (I can only assume) that would be what fellow anthropologists would expect to read. It is very dry and detailed.
When I got this book, I was excited to read about it and learn about Anonymous from a legitimate source. Unfortunately, because it was so dry and detailed, I found myself having difficulty finishing it - I found myself skimming entire chapters and skipping around the book. If you are looking for an exhaustive reference on the topic, this might be an excellent choice. If you are simply interested in the topic, this might not be for you.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing a complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review.
5 Comments
27 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
![]({"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51M99GBJ3JL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg":[329,499],"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51M99GBJ3JL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg":[228,346]})
