Technology and Society: Opposing Viewpoints (Opposing Viewpoints)

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: This book disappointed me. I had high expectations, and the book certainly didn't live up to me.

When I think of a good 'debate book', I think of interaction. Interaction is very vital to allow readers to properly compare two opposing sides and sift through their positions.

This book failed in the area of interaction. To me, it almost seems like laziness. They just grabbed exerpts from pre-published articles, and merely pasted them together. Consequently, some of the "opposing" view points didn't evenly match each other or even address the same areas. There is nothing necessarily wrong with publishing a book out of pre-published matter--if it is done right. In this case, I don't think it was done right.

In my opinion, this book could have been much better if they had rather contacted the authors of these articles. They could give authors a small statement to respond to, and right an original essay. That way they couldhave had the authors addressing similar points. It would really make this more of an enjoyable read. Of course that would take effort and money, but that's what you need to compile a good book, right?

This book manifests all the downsides of the approach they took; it seems canned, artificial, the various essays don't seem to address the opposing articles points head-on, and it has a very patchy and scrappy feel to it. I found the book disjointed and often felt like a person on a boat being tossed around in the sea.

If you are interested in technology, you will find some interesting content here, but then again I don't think its worth a buy because of the lack of effort in making their content original. Do yourself a favour and get another book.