Don’t Burn Anyone at the Stake Today

An electrifying, thought-provoking exploration of how the digital era is reshaping our world, by bestselling, Women's Prize-winning writer Naomi Alderman


What’s the most useful thing you could know about your own life?

In this era-defining book, developed from her groundbreaking Radio 4 essay series, Naomi Alderman turns her boundless curiosity and incisive thinking to a question that affects us all: how do we understand, and navigate, the epoch we’re living through? She calls this epoch the Information Crisis.

The internet has flooded us with more knowledge, opinions, ideas, opportunities, as well as verbal attacks and misinformation, than ever before. It lets us learn more quickly and also spread falsehood more quickly, it brings us together and also divides us in new ways, it is now the lens through which we perceive and understand the world. There is no going back. But we have been here before. In fact, this is humanity’s third information crisis.

The first, the invention of writing 5,000 years ago, and the second, the invention of the printing press 600 years ago, drastically reshaped our perceptions, interactions and mental landscapes in ways that feel acutely familiar. Overwhelmed by information, people become afraid and angry, unsettled and distressed, as well as more knowledgeable, educated and curious. By looking at those previous information crises, both the turmoil and the advances, Alderman asks what we can learn from the past to better understand our present, and prepare for our future.

Drawing on the work of philosophers and historians, Don’t Burn Anyone at the Stake Today explores how new technology opens up new ways of being and helps us chart a way forward (once again), through the turbulent seas of information overload.

Review

Naomi Alderman is one of our most surprising and delightful public intellectuals, and this book grapples wonderfully with our current schisms and their historical precedents ― Jon Ronson

How fortunate we are to have Naomi Alderman as our companion in these confusing, challenging and dangerous times. Don't Burn Anyone at the Stake Today is a serious ― and also very funny ― history of how we got to this point in the information revolution and a wise guide to navigating our way through it. Essential reading for the 21st century ― Erica Wagner

Brisk, insightful, thought-provoking and powerfully empathetic: I started laughing and learning things on the first page and didn't stop until I hit the last one. Don't Burn Anyone at the Stake Today is the product of really deep thinking and a tremendously generous mind. It is the antidote to doom scrolling: a book that made me think in an entirely new way about the age we live in and which will make you excited about our era rather than merely terrified of it ― Ian Dunt

The best book about the Internet I've ever read. Changed how I think about human history, the people I fight with on social media AND my own relationship with my phone, which is quite a lot for 150 pages ― Jonn Elledge

You know how the best writers pinpoint something you’ve felt for ages but haven’t been able to articulate? This is like that. It’s so good. She should give Radio 4’s next Reith Lectures ― Guardian

It's a welcome appeal for nuance and thought in a world increasingly dominated by rapid responses, false assumptions and casual cruelties driven by fear. I loved it - it's wise and compassionate, acknowledging that humans change, and make mistakes, and sometimes even grow beyond them ― Joanne Harris

A beautifully written book that alerts us to the necessity of thinking about how we read, what we read and why we read - it will sharpen your perceptions and attach you to the world beyond the word. Keep it by your nearest screen ― Robin Ince

Nobody who surveys today's toxic internet can doubt that something is badly wrong. But now those of us who want to come through the information crisis wiser, better, and more deeply connected to other human beings have a trusted guide we can rely on ― Bill Thompson

Original, witty and profound – Naomi Alderman's broad historical perspective makes sense of our turbulent age with verve and wisdom ― Rafael Behr

Naomi Alderman has done more than write a Protect and Survive manual for the toxic fallout of the social media age: this is a book that will help you to live, hopefully, in the one thing that none of us can escape - the historical moment ― Matthew Sweet

About the Author

Naomi Alderman has a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and another one in Classical Studies. Also an MA in Creative Writing and another MA in Classics. She's an award-winning novelist, broadcaster, TV producer and videogames creator. She has worked in technology startups for more than 20 years, since the time when people in tech still felt utopian about "making the world a better place". Which now makes her feel slightly embarrassed about her naivety. She is the author of the bestselling, multi-award-winning The Power, which was chosen as a book of the year by both Bill Gates and Barack Obama and became a TV series for Amazon Prime. Her other books include The Future, The Liars’ Gospel, The Lessons and Disobedience She is the co-creator of the fitness game and audio adventure Zombies, Run! which has more than ten million players. Naomi writes and presents Human Intelligence, a history of thinking on BBC Radio 4.