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The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium Kindle Edition


How insurgencies—enabled by digital devices and a vast information sphere—have mobilized millions of ordinary people around the world.

In the words of economist and scholar Arnold Kling, Martin Gurri saw it coming. Technology has categorically reversed the information balance of power between the public and the elites who manage the great hierarchical institutions of the industrial age: government, political parties, the media.
The Revolt of the Public tells the story of how insurgencies, enabled by digital devices and a vast information sphere, have mobilized millions of ordinary people around the world.

Originally published in 2014,
The Revolt of the Public is now available in an updated edition, which includes an extensive analysis of Donald Trump’s improbable rise to the presidency and the electoral triumphs of Brexit. The book concludes with a speculative look forward, pondering whether the current elite class can bring about a reformation of the democratic process and whether new organizing principles, adapted to a digital world, can arise out of the present political turbulence.
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From the Publisher

democracy, global media, global politics, new media journalism, open media, public revolt
democracy, global media, global politics, new media journalism, open media, public revolt

Themes explored in Revolt of the Public

  • The new path we'll need to take if we want to preserve democracy
  • The impact of media, broader access to information via technology, and visual imagery on our democracy
  • Why the public today holds a powerful force that can be used to shape our democracy
  • How and why he saw major political events and movements coming, including Brexit, Arab Spring, and the 2016 election of Donald Trump
  • the implications of these political events and movements on our democracy

democracy, global media, global politics, new media journalism, open media, public revolt

An excerpt from Arnold Kling's foreword

I read the first edition of The Revolt of the Public in early January of 2016, after Virginia Postrel cited it in her column. Since then, it has been the book that I recommend whenever I am in a conversation that turns to the Trump phenomenon or the disturbing state of politics in general.

Because Martin Gurri saw it coming. When, without fanfare, he self-published the first edition as an e-book in June of 2014, he did not specifically name Donald Trump, or Brexit, or the oddball political figures and new fringe parties that have surged all over Europe. But he saw how the internet in general and social media in particular were transforming the political landscape.

democracy, global media, global politics, new media journalism, open media, public revolt

About the author

Martin Gurri is a geopolitical analyst and student of new media and information effects. He spent many years working in the corner of CIA dedicated to the analysis of open media-from that privileged perch, he watched the global information landscape undergo a transformation so radical as to seem unprecedented in the history of our species. Wise heads noted that the change was bound to cascade down to all of society, very much including politics. So indeed it has: witness the 2016 presidential elections. After leaving government, Mr. Gurri focused his research on the motive forces powering the transformation. The child of this labor is The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium, first published in electronic form in 2014 and now republished in 2018 with a chapter or reconsideration's. Kind reviewers claimed that the book had predicted the rise of Donald Trump. It did no such thing, but attentive readers would not have been surprised by the events of 2016.

innovation, books, new ideas, technology, business, stripe press

About the publisher

Stripe Press publishes ideas for progress in science, technology, and economics. Our collection includes new ideas from emerging and established thinkers and industry leaders, as well as reimagined editions of enduring works. We curate our titles for a global audience of builders and practitioners who are shaping the future of policy and industry.

Stripe Press is based in South San Francisco, with team members across the US and in London. We are a part of the global payments infrastructure company Stripe.

Other titles by Stripe Press:

  • High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil
  • The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop
  • Stubborn Attachments by Tyler Cowen
  • An Elegant Puzzle by Will Larson
  • Get Together by Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh, and Kai Elmer Sotto
  • The Making of Prince of Persia by Jordan Mechner
  • The Art of Doing Science and Engineering by Richard W. Hamming

Editorial Reviews

Review

“All over the world, elite institutions from governments to media to academia are losing their authority and monopoly control of information to dynamic amateurs and the broader public. This book, until now only in samizdat (and Kindle) form, has been my No. 1 handout for the last several years to anyone seeking to understand this unfolding shift in power from hierarchies to networks in the age of the internet.”
—Marc Andreessen, cofounder, Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz

“We are in an open war between publics with passionate and untutored interests and elites who believe they have the right to guide those publics. Gurri asks the essential question: Can liberal representative democracy survive the rise of the public?”
—Roger Berkowitz, founder and academic director of the Hannah Arendt Center, professor of politics and human rights at Bard College

About the Author

Martin Gurri is a geopolitical analyst and student of new media and information effects. He spent many years working in the corner of the CIA dedicated to the analysis of open media. From that privileged perch, he watched the global information landscape undergo a transformation so radical as to seem unprecedented in the history of our species. After leaving government, Gurri focused his research on the motive forces powering this transformation. The result of this labor is The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium, first published in digital form in 2014 and republished in 2018. He lives in Virginia.

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