Now I Know Who My Comrades Are by Emily Parker

“Parker's reporting.captures well the online activists' pervasive feeling of being constantly monitored.” - The Wall Street Journal “It is tracing of the more subtle, psychological effects the internet has had on activists, regular folks, and authorities that makes this book an essential read.if one is restricted to a few voices, oh what voices Parker has chosen.” - The Los Angeles Review of Books argues that online communication can undermine authoritarian rule even when its effects don't make their way to the streets.” - The New Yorker Now I Know Who My Comrades Are is their story. Even as they navigate the risks of authoritarian life, they feel free. This book introduces us to an army of bloggers and tweeters-generals and foot soldiers alike. For example, Parker charts the rise of Russia's Alexey Navalny from ordinary blogger to one of the greatest threats to Vladimir Putin's regime. It was an extraordinary moment in modern history-and Now I Know Who My Comrades Are takes us beyond the Middle East to the next major civil rights battles between the Internet and state control. In 2011 ordinary Egyptians, many armed with little more than mobile phones, helped topple a thirty-year-old dictatorship. It's a new phenomenon, but one that's already brought about significant political change. In her groundbreaking book, Now I Know Who My Comrades Are: Voices from the Internet Underground, Emily Parker, formerly a State Department policy advisor, writer at The Wall Street Journal and editor at The New York Times, provides on-the-ground accounts of how the Internet is transforming lives in China, Cuba, and Russia.

As one blogger put it, 'Now I know who my comrades are.' Online, people discover that they are not alone.

Authoritarian governments try to isolate individuals from one another, but in the age of social media freedom of speech is impossible to contain. And in Russia, a lone blogger rises to become one of the most prominent opposition figures since the fall of the Soviet Union. In Cuba, authorities unsuccessfully try to silence an online critic by sowing seeds of distrust in her marriage. In China, university students use the Internet to save the life of an attempted murder victim. “One can practically overdose on the levels of intrigue at play in this account of 'netizens,' bloggers turned social crusaders turned Internet rock stars.” - Boston Globe

“An essential read.” - The Los Angeles Review of Books

Now I Know Who My Comrades Are by Emily Parker