Move Fast and Break Things

Critics Review

• Taplin wields his axe mercilessly…by the end of this book you will agree with Taplin that the tech firms are abusing their monopoly power to rip us off and debase our culture – breaking the world as he sees it…It is time for consumers to break back. This manifesto is a punchy start.

  The Sunday Times

• A bracing, unromantic account of how the internet was captured…Move Fast and Break Things is a timely and useful book

  The Observer

• Taplin is angry as hell about the immense size and power of the tech giants, and has a compelling pitch for why we should all be worried too

  The Evening Standard

• Comprehensive…Where Taplin excels is by putting all this into the context of the changing global economy

  The Times

• A new analysis of the dark side of the digital revolution…Taplin goes beyond familiar critiques

  Financial Times

• Taplin’s sense of outrage is palpable and his case is often compelling

  The Guardian

• A nuanced look at the downside of what is glibly tossed around as “disruption” by various cyber-messianic blowhards. Taplin is hunting big game; it is his contention that the giants of the cyberworld-from Google to Amazon-are threats to the fundamental foundations of democracy and that they also cement inequality into our systems in new and dangerous ways

  Esquire

• Mr Taplin brings an informed perspective to his task

  Wall Street Journal

• Jonathan Taplin’s new book could not be more timely. Twenty years after the initial euphoria of the Web, ten years after the invention of social media, it’s time to stop breaking things and start thinking seriously about the new habitat we’re creating. Move Fast and Break Things provides a blueprint for a future that humans can live in

  Frank Rose, author of The Art of Immersion

• Move Fast and Break Things goes on my bookshelf beside a few other indispensable signposts in the maze of life in the 21st Century–The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul, The Image by Daniel Boorstin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin, The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan, The Media Monopoly by Ben Bagdikian, Christ and the Media by Malcolm Muggeridge, and Future Shock by Alvin Toffler. I pray the deepest and highest prayer I can get to that this clarion warning is heeded. The survival of our species is at stake

  T Bone Burnett, Oscar-Winning Songwriter, soundtrack and record producer

• Jonathan Taplin’s Move Fast and Break Things, a rock and roll memoir cum internet history cum artists’ manifesto, provides a bracing antidote to corporate triumphalism – and a reminder that musicians and writers need a place at the tech table and, more to the point, a way to make a decent living

  Jeffrey Toobin, author of American Heiress

• A powerful argument for reducing inequality and revolutionizing how we use the Web for the benefit of the many rather than the few

  Kirkus Review

• An absolute must-read for anyone who wants to gain a little savvy in the internet era

  Newsweek

• Insightful…. Taplin provides a keen, thorough look at the present and future of Americans’ lives as influenced and manipulated by the technological behemoths on which they’ve come to depend. His work is certainly food for thought

  Publishers Weekly

• Jonathan Taplin, more than anyone I know, can articulate the paralyzing complexities that have arisen from the intertwining of the tech and music industries. He counters the catastrophic implications for musicians with solutions and inspiration for a renaissance. He shows the way for artists to reclaim and reinvent subversion, rather than be in servitude to Big Tech. Every musician and every creator should read this book.

  Rosanne Cash, Grammy-winning Singer and Songwriter

• A breakthrough, must-read book… a tour de force—a compelling, story-driven work focusing on the handful of men who have shaped and essentially taken over the massive tech industry. Along the way, Taplin tells his own personal story with charm and insight. If you want to understand what has happened to our country and where tech will take us in the era of Trump, put aside some time to read this book. It will take your breath away

  Alternet

• Jonathan Taplin’s excellent new book explains exactly how Google, Facebook and Amazon are undermining democratic institutions, accelerating the rise of oligarchy…and destroying both cultural and economic opportunities for millions of people.

  The Chicago Tribune