PositiveThe Wall Street Journal...an account of the site’s history and an efficient recap of the major controversies surrounding online behavior ... Ms. Lagorio-Chafkin fearlessly explores Reddit’s dark edges, documenting the mob mentality that is so often evident on the platform and describing each scandal neatly as the book progresses.
Claire L. Evans
RaveWall Street JournalTo their credit, these women’s stories make Broad Band more intriguing—Silicon Valley desperately needs a counterfactual to the unicorn myth. But this too-often fannish, cheerleading and apologetic book doesn’t make room for assessing merit or debating legacy—a feature we can only hope will come when women innovators proliferate and step off this tricky pedestal. A number of women’s histories were surely green-lighted in the past year, and I hope that more than a few of them will prove themselves timeless. For a historian to focus squarely on her subjects’ works would be a radical act in support of women’s achievement. Until we have such books, it’s hard not to empathize with Ms. Evans’s challenge, as it’s the challenge that many women in technology face daily: How does one celebrate merit, innovation, the elegance of superior code, while also paying homage to the contemporary women’s movement? We are all Ada Lovelace today. Here’s hoping that in future histories we no longer are.
