Description
Book Synopsis''A must-read to anyone interested in the digital world.'' - Valérie Schafer, Center for Contemporary and Digital History, University of LuxembourgA concise history of the digital revolution and the lore, rhetoric, and debates that surround it.The Digital Revolution aims to tell a story, one of the most powerful ideologies of recent decades: that digitalization constitutes a revolution, a break with the past, a radical change for the human beings who are living through it. The book aims to investigate the origins of this idea, how it evolved, which other past revolutions consciously or unconsciously inspired it, which great stories it has conveyed over time, which of its key elements have changed and which ones have persisted and have been repeated in different historical periods. All these discussions, large or small, have settled and condensed into a series of media, advertising, corporate, political, and technical sources. Readers will be introduced to new, previously unpublished hi
Trade ReviewOffers timely insight into a timeless preoccupation with the digital age. * Benjamin Peters, Hazel Rogers Associate Professor of Media Studies and affiliated faculty Cyber Studies, University of Tulsa *
Gabriele Balbi delves into a notion whose history, actors and developments shape our digital imaginaries and practices, as well as our relationship with technology, media and innovation. A must-read to anyone interested in the digital world. * Valérie Schafer, Center for Contemporary and Digital History, University of Luxembourg *
This short book is both topical and timely. * Jane Winters, Professor of Digital Humanities, School of Advanced Study, University of London *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Understanding the Digital Revolution as an Ideology 1: Defining the Revolution: Blessed Uncertainty 2: Comparing the Revolution: Past Inheritance, Present Construction 3: Thinking About the Revolution: The Mantras 4: Believing in the Revolution: A Contemporary Quasi-Religion Conclusion: Who Needs the Digital Revolution and Why Does it Keep Going?
