Reviews
Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob
by Lee Siegel
Spiegel & Grau; 182 pages; $22.95
Siegel argues that the Web and complementary developments—from reality television to the emergence of business prophets like Malcolm Gladwell—are giving rise to a new and malevolent mass culture, an “electronic mob,” that threatens to overwhelm long-held concepts of humanity, democracy, and the individual.
“[B]rings dead-on accuracy to depicting the quietly insinuating ways in which the Internet can blow your mind. And it announces exactly what’s wrong with this picture.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“He ranges widely, he reads closely.... He gets our attention, yes —and then the questions resume....”—Salon
“Insightful and well written…a welcome addition to the debate on the personal ramifications of living in a wired world”—Publishers Weekly