Reviews

Civics of Technology publishes reviews of various media—books, articles, shows, documentaries, curriculum, albums, and really anything. These reviews should put these media into conversation with our aims at CoT, such as our assumption that “technologies are not neutral and neither are the societies into which they are introduced,” our five critical questions about technology, ecological and critical perspectives, or a broader technology education lens. We hope these reviews will help educators and scholars to identify which books to read or lessons to try in their classrooms. Use our contact page or email us (dankrutka@gmail.com; mariekheath@gmail.com) to submit a review.

Books

  • Narayanan and Kapoor, 2024

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  • Matt Beane, 2024

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  • Nicola Twilley, 2024

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  • Rayvon Fouché, 2005

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  • Deb Chachra, 2023

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  • Cory Doctorow, 2023

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  • Sharma & Singh (Eds.), 2022

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  • Paris Marx, 2022

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  • Nicholas Carr, 2014

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  • Johan Hari, 2022

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  • Paul Bogard, 2014

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Films

Beane, M. (2024). The Skill Code: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines. Harper Collins. ISBN-13 9780063337794

Review by Jacob Pleasants

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Twilley, N. (2024). Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves. Penguin Random House. ISBN-13 9780735223288

Review by Jacob Pleasants

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Fouché, R. (2005). Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation:

Granville T. Woods, Lewis H. Latimer, and Shelby J. Davidson.

Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press. 225 pp., $30.00

paperback, ISBN-13 9780801882708.

Review by Dan Krutka

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Chachra, D. (2023). How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems that Shape our World. Riverhead Books. 320 pages. ISBN 9780593086599.

by Jacob Pleasants

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Doctorow, C. & (2023). The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation. Verso. 192 pages. ISBN: ‎ 978-1804291245.

Review by Jacob Pleasants

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Sharma, S & Singh, R (Eds) (2022). Re-understanding media: Feminist extensions of Marshall McLuhan. Duke Press.

Purchase from publisher. 272 pages

. ISBN: ‎ 978-1-4780-1787-5.

Review by Michelle Ciccone & Dan Krutka

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Marx, Paris (2022). Road to nowhere: What Silicon Valley gets wrong about the future of transportation. Verso.

Purchase from publisher. 272 pages

. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1839765889.

Review by Jacob Pleasants

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Carr, N. (2014). The glass cage: Automation and us. WW Norton & Co. 289 pages. Purchasing options. ISBN-13: 978-0393351637.

Review by Dan Krutka

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Hari, Johann. (2022). Stolen Focus: Why you can’t pay attention – and how to think deeply again. Crown. ‎368 pages. Purchasing options. ISBN-13: 978-0593138519

Reviewed by Jacob Pleasants

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Book cover for "The End of Night"

Bogard, Paul. (2014). The end of night: Searching for natural darkness in an age of artificial light. Back Bay Books. ‎352 pages. $17.99 Paperback. ISBN-13: 9780316182911.

Reviewed by Jacob Pleasants

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(2024). Seeking Mavis Beacon. A film by Jazmin Jones and Olivia McKayla Ross.

Reviewed by Sharla Berry

Read Sharla’s Review