Don’t Burn Anyone at the Stake Today

‘At the point that there’s an enormous increase in the amount of information that is available to us, we all get very anxious. We get very angry. People we thought we knew well have a very different instinct to us on something that seemed incredibly obvious to us’

In this intellectually thrilling, ground-breaking book, Naomi Alderman explores the impact of the internet on human communication and argues that the digital age is reshaping our perceptions, interactions and mental landscapes, much as our two previous information crises—the invention of writing and the Gutenberg printing press - did.

By looking at the historical outcomes of previous information revolutions – outcomes like the Enlightenment's intellectual advancements and the Reformation's religious conflicts - Alderman asks what we can learn from the past to better manage our current information age.

Drawing on the work of philosophers and historians, as well as addressing misinformation, conspiracy theories, public disagreements and groupthink, she explores how new technologies open up new ways of thinking, and of being. Urgent, entertaining, hopeful and eye-opening, Don’t Burn Anyone at the Stake Today offers a new understanding of the emotional and cognitive upheavals we face with today's information crisis and encourages us to prepare for, and mitigate, its worst effects while harnessing its potential for positive change.