An insider offers a “forceful critique...of Big Tech's steady erosion of democracy” (The New Yorker) and describes what must be done to stop it Over the past decades, under the cover of “innovation,” technology companies have successfully resisted regulation and have even begun to seize power from governments themselves. Facial recognition firms track citizens for police surveillance. Cryptocurrency has wiped out the personal savings of millions and threatens the stability of the global financial system. Spyware companies sell digital intelligence tools to anyone who can afford them. This new reality—where unregulated technology has become a forceful instrument for autocrats around the world—is terrible news for democracies and citizens. In The Tech Coup, Marietje Schaake offers a behind-the-scenes account of how technology companies crept into nearly every corner of our lives and our governments. She takes us beyond the headlines to high-stakes meetings with human rights defenders, business leaders, computer scientists, and politicians to show how technologies—from social media to artificial intelligence—have gone from being heralded as utopian to undermining the pillars of our democracies. To reverse this existential power imbalance, Schaake outlines game-changing solutions to empower elected officials and citizens alike. Democratic leaders can—and must—resist the influence of corporate lobbying and reinvent themselves as dynamic, flexible guardians of our digital world. Drawing on her experiences in the halls of the European Parliament and among Silicon Valley insiders, Schaake offers a frightening look at our modern tech-obsessed world—and a clear-eyed view of how democracies can build a better future before it is too late.

“Worth a read for anyone who cares about making change happen.”—Barack Obama A powerful new blueprint for how governments and nonprofits can harness the power of digital technology to help solve the most serious problems of the twenty-first century As the speed and complexity of the world increases, governments and nonprofit organizations need new ways to effectively tackle the critical challenges of our time—from pandemics and global warming to social media warfare. In Power to the Public, Tara Dawson McGuinness and Hana Schank describe a revolutionary new approach—public interest technology—that has the potential to transform the way governments and nonprofits around the world solve problems. Through inspiring stories about successful projects ranging from a texting service for teenagers in crisis to a streamlined foster care system, the authors show how public interest technology can make the delivery of services to the public more effective and efficient. At its heart, public interest technology means putting users at the center of the policymaking process, using data and metrics in a smart way, and running small experiments and pilot programs before scaling up. And while this approach may well involve the innovative use of digital technology, technology alone is no panacea—and some of the best solutions may even be decidedly low-tech. Clear-eyed yet profoundly optimistic, Power to the Public presents a powerful blueprint for how government and nonprofits can help solve society’s most serious problems.

From the bestselling author of The Dark Net comes a book that explains all the dangers of the digital revolution and offers concrete solutions on how we can protect our personal privacy, and democracy itself. The internet was meant to set us free. But have we unwittingly handed too much away to shadowy powers behind a wall of code, all manipulated by a handful of Silicon Valley utopians, ad men, and venture capitalists? And, in light of recent data breach scandals around companies like Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, what does that mean for democracy, our delicately balanced system of government that was created long before big data, total information, and artificial intelligence? In this urgent polemic, Jamie Bartlett argues that through our unquestioning embrace of big tech, the building blocks of democracy are slowly being removed. The middle class is being eroded, sovereign authority and civil society is weakened, and we citizens are losing our critical faculties, maybe even our free will. The People Vs Tech is an enthralling account of how our fragile political system is being threatened by the digital revolution. Bartlett explains that by upholding six key pillars of democracy, we can save it before it is too late. We need to become active citizens, uphold a shared democratic culture, protect free elections, promote equality, safeguard competitive and civic freedoms, and trust in a sovereign authority. This essential book shows that the stakes couldn't be higher and that, unless we radically alter our course, democracy will join feudalism, supreme monarchies and communism as just another political experiment that quietly disappeared.

A Dictionary of European Anglicisms documents the spread of English in Europe. It provides the first exhaustive and up-to-date account of British and American English words that have been imported into the main languages of Europe. English, which imported thousands of words from French and Latin (mainly after 1066), is now by far the world's biggest lexical exporter, and the trade is growing as English continues to dominate various fields ranging from pop music to electronic communication. Several countries have monitored the inflow of anglicisms and some have tried to block it. But language, as lexicographers have always found and as this book demonstrates once more, respects neither boundary nor law. The dictionary not only shows which words have been exported where, but how the process of importation can change a word's form and function, sometimes subtly, at others remarkably as in the transformation of painkiller to Bulgarian 'jack of all trades'. The book provides a systematic description of the lexical input of English into Icelandic, Norwegian, Dutch, German, Russian, Polish, Croatian, Bulgarian, French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Finnish, Hungarian, Albanian, and Greek. Each entry has a brief definition of the loan word, followed by information on its history and distribution; variations in its spelling, meaning, and pronunciation; its route of transmission if not direct from English; its degree of acceptance and usage restrictions; and its native equivalents and derivatives. Grids showing distribution patterns across Europe accompany many of the entries. The Dictionary of European Anglicisms is a scholarly tour de force [French: imported early nineteenth century] and the result of a prodigious research effort across Europe masterminded and directed by Manfred Gorlach. It is a unique resource for comparative analysis and the study of linguistic variation and change. It will fascinate linguists and word-watchers of all persuasions.

Buzz Books 2024: Fall/Winter is the 25th volume in our popular sampler series. This Buzz Books presents passionate readers with an insider’s look at nearly fifty of the buzziest books due out this season. Such major bestselling authors as Jamie Attenberg, Kira Jane Buxton, Jean Hanff Korelitz, and Dava Sobel are featured, along with literary figures like John Larison, Mason Coile, Kira Jane Buxton, and more. Buzz Books has had a particularly stellar track record with highlighting the most talented, exciting, and diverse debut authors, and this edition is no exception. Anna Montague, editor at Dey Street Books, offers a novel about an unlikely late-in-life road trip for fans of Remarkably Bright Creatures. Among others are Julie Leong, Kristin Koval, Helena Echlin, Jane Yang, and Cebo Campbell. In this edition we’ve also included a selection of a graphic novel by the author known as unfins. Our robust nonfiction section covers such important subjects as pregnancy loss and the winter blues; a literary memoir from singer-songwriter Neko Case; and a biography of Marie Curie by Pulitzer Prize finalist Dava Sobel. Finally, we present early looks at new work from young adult authors, including the New York Times best-selling authors Kwame Mbalia, Judy I. Lin, and Robert Beatty; as well as new titles from Logan-Ashley Kisner, Amanda M. Helander, and Jill Tew. And be sure to look out for Buzz Books 2025: Spring/Summer, coming in January, for next season’s most talked about books.

State development in Africa is risky, even life-threatening. Heads of state must weigh the advantage of promoting political and economic development against the risk of fortifying dangerous political rivals. This book takes a novel approach to the study of neopatrimonial rule by placing security concerns at the center of state-building. Using quantitative evidence from 44 African countries and in-depth case studies of Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, Rabinowitz demonstrates that the insecurities of the African state make strategically aligning with rural leaders critical to political success. Leaders who cultivate the goodwill of the countryside are better able to endure sporadic urban unrest, subdue political challengers, minimize ethnic and regional discord, and prevent a military uprising. Such regimes are more likely to build infrastructure needed for economic and political development. In so doing, Rabinowitz upends the long-held assumption that African leaders must cater to urban constituents to secure their rule.