The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority

Originally self-published in 2014 and republished, in an updated form, this year by Stripe Press, this book, by a former CIA analyst, looks at technological change as the catalyst that has caused the public to revolt against leaders and provoke a crisis of authority. Weaving together such seemingly disparate events as the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, Brexit, and Trump, the book makes a compelling case that all these movements, at their heart, are enabled by the distributed, unmediated communication enabled by the Internet. The author argues that these movements “from the outside” often lack a positive agenda but are instead able to unify various factions through a common desire to oppose the status quo, without agreement on what or how to replace it. Highly recommended.