Mass Informed Consent: Evidence on Upgrading Democracy with Polls and New Media by Adam F. Simon. Lanham, MD

can sustain activist involvement over time. Do the reduced costs of e-activism help cultivate decentralized social movement leadership? This is a well-researched and important study that draws from a nuanced understanding of the social movement literature, and it raises some important questions about how technological change affects our basic assumptions and concepts. For instance, the authors argue that we need to rethink concepts like “collective action,” since e-tactics are both collective and private actions. Since co-presence of activists is not required for Web-based collective action, our research and theorizing may be more aptly labeled “protest” rather than “social movement” studies. My only disappointments were with the book(s) these authors didnʼt write. Since the research ends in 2006, the authors have not explored how social media such as Facebook have affected political organizing. In addition, much more can be said about the interface of technology, social change mobilization, and identity. For instance, I would have liked to see these authors relate their findings on identity and individualized forms of activism to Paul Lichtemanʼs notion of “personalist politics” (The Search for Political Community: American Activists Reinventing Commitment, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996) or to Robert Wuthnowʼs exploration of how modern institutions affect social ties (Loose Connections: Joining Together in Americaʼs Fragmented Communities, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998). A discussion of the implications of economic inequalities and demographic variation in Internet access as well as a consideration of the transnational dimensions of Web-based activism would be welcome additions to the conversation this book has begun. In sum, with this path-breaking assessment of how technology impacts our thinking about movements, Earl and Kimport have laid the foundation for some fascinating new areas of research. The most-profound work will carry on the quest to discover whether and how changes in political action repertoires are linked to broader social and institutional as well as technological changes. I hope to soon see new work that expands the lens of this book to consider how global-level forces are implicated in these changes, including how technological and political changes affect both states and political mobilization.