The New Digital Age
Published in 2013, The New Digital Age is Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen's wide ranging argument that the next several billion people coming online will reshape governments, civil society, and conflict around the world. Schmidt, then executive chairman of Google, and Cohen, the founder of Google's policy think tank Jigsaw, draw on travels to countries such as North Korea, Mexico, Libya, and Pakistan to consider what universal connectivity will mean for identity, privacy, journalism, terrorism, revolution, and reconstruction after war. They argue that connectivity will empower individuals against authoritarian states even as it gives those states powerful new tools for surveillance, and they sketch how diplomacy, militaries, and corporations will have to adapt. Reviewers praised the book's range and access while criticizing some of its techno optimism. It became a touchstone in Washington and Silicon Valley debates about the global politics of the internet.
What you might want to know about The New Digital Age
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen on how the spread of internet connectivity will reshape states, conflict, and daily life.
No, it is written for general readers and policymakers and focuses on social, political, and economic implications.
Some predictions look prescient, especially on surveillance, while parts of the optimism about open networks read differently after later events.
The New Digital Age was written by Eric Schmidt, published in 2013 by Knopf.
The New Digital Age is 315 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The New Digital Age takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
The New Digital Age is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
