Title: A triumph of style over substance
Product review: When I ordered this book, even when I packed it for winter holiday in the Midwest, I had high hopes - it was well-reviewed in Amazon, and Lanham is a well-respected scholar. Yet the only point on which the book succeeds is Chapter 3, in which Lanham fully develops a theory of the benefits of self-conscious artifice - which has little, if anything, to do with economic theory. Lanham admits he is no economist; this might explain his adoration of libertarian economic thought, which of course, is more a faith than a theory. "Don't worry, be happy" is Lanham's response to anyone who questions any possible negatives associated with technology or the market. Ultimately, these are the only real "lessons" of the book - awareness of communicative "styles" make us better communicators (a valid point, but hardly new), and a McFerrinesque attitude towards risk and responsibility. Hardly worthy of the pulp it is printed on.
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