- Hardcover: 264 pages
- Publisher: OUP USA (22 Oct 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0195342895
- ISBN-13: 978-0195342895
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 15.7 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 955,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
In Search of Jefferson's Moose
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Product Description
Review
"An interesting book...[from] one of the nation's leading Internet scholars... I hope you will keep Jefferson's moose in mind in the days ahead."--Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet
"Reading this beautifully written and extraordinarily diverse work today is what it must have been like to know or read Jefferson then. Post has crafted an experience in understanding that allows us to glimpse the genius that Jefferson was, and to leave the book astonished by the talent this extraordinary writer is."--Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law, Stanford Law School, and author of Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace and Remix
"Now and then, ingenious insight yields an authentic work of genius. David Post's musing about cyberspace, the law, history, and a great deal more has produced such a work, conceived and written in the finest Jeffersonian spirit.--Sean Wilentz, Professor of History, Princeton University, and auth
Product Description
In 1787, Thomas Jefferson, then the American Minister to France, had the "complete skeleton, skin & horns" of an American moose shipped to him in Paris and mounted in the lobby of his residence as a symbol of the vast possibilities contained in the strange and largely unexplored New World. Taking a cue from Jefferson's efforts, David Post, one of the nation's leading Internet scholars, here presents a pithy, colorful exploration of the still mostly undiscovered territory of cyberspace--what it is, how it works, and how it should be governed. What law should the Internet have, and who should make it? What are we to do, and how are we to think, about online filesharing and copyright law, about Internet pornography and free speech, about controlling spam, and online gambling, and cyberterrorism, and the use of anonymous remailers, or the practice of telemedicine, or the online collection and dissemination of personal information? How can they be controlled? Should they be controlled? And by whom? Post presents the Jeffersonian ideal--small self-governing units, loosely linked together as peers in groups of larger and larger size--as a model for the Internet and for cyberspace community self-governance. Deftly drawing on Jefferson's writings on the New World in Notes on the State of Virginia, Post draws out the many similarities (and differences) between the two terrains, vividly describing how the Internet actually functions from a technological, legal, and social perspective as he uniquely applies Jefferson's views on natural history, law, and governance in the New World to illuminate the complexities of cyberspace. In Search of Jefferson's Moose is a lively, accessible, and remarkably original overview of the Internet and what it holds for the future.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
I came across this book in one of the books I was reading for a technical paper I am working on and immediately bought it. I must say I love the book although it took a few minutes to sink in to David's tone! What particularly interests me about this book is that it has been written so well with two distinct yet interwoven topics and yet stick to the core matter- a rather hard thing to do and I can say so myself because I write too!
The other best thing about this book is that I got to learn many new interesting facts about Jefferson and many other presidents just by following some leads in the book. It is a good history supplement too!!
Networking presented in a very unique manner I must say! A definite buy if you want to enjoy reading about networks in a very casual yet meaningful way, interspersed with parts of history!! Two dry subjects presented in a very beautiful manner, according to me.
The other best thing about this book is that I got to learn many new interesting facts about Jefferson and many other presidents just by following some leads in the book. It is a good history supplement too!!
Networking presented in a very unique manner I must say! A definite buy if you want to enjoy reading about networks in a very casual yet meaningful way, interspersed with parts of history!! Two dry subjects presented in a very beautiful manner, according to me.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
14 reviews
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Dazzling on Jefferson, dazzling on cyberspace, and fun to read!
18 Jan 2009
Format:Hardcover
This unusual book takes as its central premise the idea that the freedom philosophy of Thomas Jefferson is relevant to the future of the internet. And Prof. Post makes his case dazzlingly, entertainingly, brilliantly and with much joy. He does a virtuoso job of explicating Jefferson's philosophy, the mechanics of the internet, and showing how Jefferson's philosophy of freedom and governance applies. But this makes it sound like some dry intellectual discussion. No, it is HUGELY entertaining. It's a page-turner, if you can believe it! It is exciting, interesting, fun, and brim-full of fascinating and revealing anecdotes about Jefferson. The pure joy that Post takes in the life of Jefferson practically leaps off the page. Loads of fun and enlightening at the same time.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Praise for Jefferson's Moose
16 Feb 2009
Format:Hardcover
I was somewhat skeptical after reading the editorial blurbs but this book fully deserves the praise. The "State of Cyberspace" could be a dry subject but the author enlivens it with his unique approach of using Thomas Jefferson as a tour guide. The snapshots of Jefferson are fascinating and they do, indeed, cast light on the development of the internet. The book is extremely informative, but in addition, the author's personable style makes the book extremely enjoyable as well. Surprisingly, it is difficult to put down. Who woulda thought this would be a page turner? It most definitely is !!
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful
A Brilliant Concept
13 Feb 2009
Format:Hardcover
This is the most unusual piece of non-fiction I've read in a long while, and a dazzling one. Here's the concept: David Post makes the case that the Internet is today's great frontier, the modern era's great unmapped territory (and a universe that, as he explains, is expanding at a pace almost beyond human understanding.) So who better to help us think about that new frontier and how to govern it than the great philosopher/scientist//Renaissance Man of America's early days, Thomas Jefferson himself? The concept is improbable and eccentric and . . .the author totally pulls it off. In an almost cinematic style, the books moves seamlessly back and forth between the days of the Louisiana Purchase, when this vast and ungovernable wilderness lay to the West, and today's attempts by individuals and government to make sense of and manage the Internet. The book's style is chatty and enthusiastic and easily accessible to the lay reader even while the thinking behind it is deeply learned -- the writer is jumping around from law, to evolutionary theory, to the diplomatic history of the 19th Century to Jefferson's torrid love affair with a British noblewoman. And by the end, you're left with a feeling of awe. Awe for Jefferson's bold thinking for sure (and the book is a nice reminder of TJ's greatness, after all the well-deserved bashings he's been taking about slavery), but more, an awe and excitement about the present-day, the world we live in and the revolutionary transformations we are part of courtesy of the World Wide Web.
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