Netroots

Matthew R. Kerbel is Professor of Political Science at Villanova University and author or editor of six books on politics, the mass media, and the presidency, including If It Bleeds, It Leads: An Anatomy of Television News and Get This Party Started: How Progressives Can Fight Back and Win.

"Kerbel (Villanova Univ.) has written a lively, accessible history of the emergence of the blogosphere as a force in U.S. political life. Recommended." —CHOICE "...a serious assessment of whether the netroots have had demonstrable political consequences and of what their likely long-term impact on American politics will be." —The American Prospect “Where Netroots really shines is as a digital ethnography. … [It is] a compelling and nuanced portrait of the netroots phenomenon. No academic account to date has been so successful at capturing how the progressive blogosphere sees itself.” —Political Communication “Kerbel shows convincingly why the blogosphere matters in American politics. His analysis of conservative and progressive blogging communities explains how the left has taken greater advantage than the right of the distributed networking potential of digital media. The core argument is that the progressive netroots are positioned to use the Internet for movement building in ways that may rival how conservatives used message control in the mass media echo chamber to build their movement in decades past. This argument is well documented and nicely presented, making the book accessible for students and an important source for scholars.” —W. Lance Bennett, Director, Center for Communication and Civic Engagement, University of Washington–Seattle “Kerbel offers a rich and lively description of progressive politics online, with a special spotlight on blogs. A thorough and insightful account of the significance of the netroots in the evolution of American politics.” —Bruce Bimber, University of California–Santa Barbara “A bracing read. Kerbel not only ‘gets it,’ he explains it well—‘it’ being the netroots phenomenon that has reshaped American politics in the past decade. If you want to understand where politics is in 2009 and how it got there, read this book.” —Nate Wilcox, coauthor of Netroots Rising “Finally, a book that places the lefty netroots in the historical context of earlier examples of technological and political change. Such a context helps readers to see the significance of what progressives aspire to build: a new, much more democratic architecture of politics.” —Marcy Wheeler, blogger, “emptywheel” at Firedoglake.com "I'm really impressed with how much ground you've covered. Your work is absolutely critical to us all. I'm recommending your book to my colleagues in the departments of political science, communications, and history!" —Christine L. Hansvick, Pacific Lutheran University

• Chapter 1 The Emerging Era of Internet Politics; Chapter 2 Technology and Political change; Chapter 3 The Two Blogospheres; Chapter 4 The Progressive Blogosphere and Political Effectiveness; Chapter 5 The Progressive Blogosphere and Media Narratives; Chapter 6 The Progressive Blogosphere and the creation of community; Chapter 7 Open source Politics in the obama Era;