Books
UK release: 20 August 2020
Scheduled for release in the USA, Russia, and South Korea
The internet is a network of physical cables and connections, a web of wires enmeshing the world, linking huge data centres to one another and eventually to us. All are owned by someone, financed by someone, regulated by someone.
We refer to the internet as abstract from reality. By doing so, we obscure where the real power lies.
In this powerful and necessary book, James Ball sets out on a global journey into the inner workings of the system. From the computer scientists to the cable guys, the billionaire investors to the ad men, the intelligence agencies to the regulators, these are the real-life figures powering the internet and pulling the strings of our society.
Ball brilliantly shows how an invention once hailed as a democratising force has concentrated power in places it already existed - that the system, in other words, remains the same as it did before.
Advance Praise:
'A fascinating exposé of the world behind your screen. Timely, often disturbing, and so important' Caroline Criado Perez, author of Invisible Women
'An illuminating and focused guide on who controls the internet and how it controls us. Will change how you see the world' Peter Pomerantsev, author of This is Not Propaganda
'An excellent summary of how we got where we are, and how we can move forward to build a better internet' Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia
(Released in the UK, US, Germany, Netherland and South Korea)
What is love? How soon is now? How do you solve a problem like Maria?
They're some of the most famous questions ever asked. But do you know the answer to them? In Should I Stay or Should I Go?, award-winning journalist James Ball travels from the economic status of doggies in windows, to what war is good for and what becomes of the broken hearted to find out the definitive, fascinating and hilarious answers.
With Andrew Greenway (also translated into German)
Britain is run by bluffers. At the top of our government, our media and the civil service sit men – it’s usually men – whose core skills are talking fast, writing well and endeavouring to imbue the purest wind with substance. They know a little bit about everything, and an awful lot about nothing.
We live in a country where George Osborne can become a newspaper editor despite having no experience in journalism, squeezing it in alongside five other jobs; where a newspaper columnist can go from calling a foreign head of state a ‘wanker’ to being Foreign Secretary in six months; where the minister who holds on to his job for eighteen months has more expertise than the supposedly permanent senior civil servants.
The UK establishment has signed up to the cult of winging it, of pretending to hold all the aces when you actually hold a pair of twos. It prizes ‘transferable skills’, rewarding the general over the specific – and yet across the country we struggle to hire doctors, engineers, coders and more.
Written by two self-confessed bluffers, this incisive book chronicles how the UK became hooked on bluffing – and why we have to stop it.
UK release: May 2017
US release: November 2017
2016 marked the dawn of the post-truth era. The year saw two shock election results, each of which has the potential to reshape the world: the UK's decision to leave the EU, and the elevation of Donald Trump to the office of US President.
The campaigns highlighted many of the same issues in their home countries: social division, anger at the elite, anti-immigration sentiment and more - but, more than anything, they heralded an unprecedented rise of bullshit.
Sophistry and spin have been part of politics since the dawn of time. But the modern era sees millions being fed false reports that Hillary Clinton ordered 30,000 guillotines to use on her opponents following her victory, while Trump claims he 'never said that' about speeches recorded on video, and the Leave campaign's divisive claims about £350 million extra funding for the NHS and 'swarms' of new EU immigrants from Turkey prove pivotal in a referendum.
Post-truth is bigger than fake news and bigger than social media. It's about the slow rise of a political, media and online infrastructure that has devalued truth.
Bullshit gets you noticed. Bullshit makes you rich. Bullshit can even pave your way to the Oval Office. This is the story of bullshit: what's being spread, who's spreading it, why it works - and what we can do to tackle it.
Advance praise:
"A timely and important book by one of the smartest of the new generation of journalists and thinkers." --Alan Rusbridger, former editor-in-chief of The Guardian.
"This is a very important book, timely and desperately needed. In Post-Truth, James Ball gives us the technical definition of 'bullsh*t', and forensically examines how it s deployed to keep us twisting and turning away from the path to the truth. Most important, Ball shows us how to fight back, as citizens, against the assault of fake news reinforced by social media. In the era of Trump, bullsh*t is spreading like a pandemic. In Post-Truth, Ball has put on his Hazmat suit, waded into the most infected areas of the world, and found a way to stop the plague." --Alex Gibney, Academy Award-winning documentary maker
"Fake news, post-truth and propaganda are all symptoms of a news ecosystem and political culture that incentivises clickbait and confrontation. There has never been a time when it was easier to spread stories that were untrue, and never a more important time to be able to sort the facts from the bullsh*t. James Ball has produced a timely and thoroughly readable guide to how to navigate a sea of falsehoods through a storm of hyperbole, bias and propaganda." --Emily Bell, director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University
With Valentina D'Efilippo
(Translated into French, German, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese)
The History of the World, but not as you know it.
A new type of history is here – all 13.8 billion years of it, exploded into a visually jaw-dropping feast of facts, trends and timelines that tell you everything you’d ever want to know about the history of the world.
From the primordial soup to the technological revolution of the 21st century, interesting stuff has been going on; and ever since prehistoric man scratched the first tally markings into a damp cave wall, we’ve been counting and measuring it all.
Which historic warriors conquered the most territory, killed the most people, or had the largest empire?When did everything evolve?Which languages are related to which?What’s been invented and when?Where are we being born, and what are we dying of?Which countries are eating all the food, causing all the pollution and taking all the drugs?
A story of civilisation and barbarism, of war and peace, this is history done in a new way – a beautifully designed collection of the most insightful and revealing trends that tell us what the human race has been up to, and where we’re heading.
Reviews
"The book is a delight" The Economist
"This new book, packed with beautifully and cleverly laid out infographics, provides a refreshing exploration of the history of the world." Creative Review
"A new book that continues to push the field of infographics forward." Visually
"Not only is this book a chock full of rich visuals, but the organization is an artform in itself. Small details […] make this a delightful read from cover to cover." Core 77
"This book does nothing less than chronicle nearly 14 billion years of Earth’s history […] all rendered in clever, topic-specific graphics." Fast Company
With Charlie Beckett
WikiLeaks is the most challenging journalistic phenomenon to have emerged in the digital era. It has provoked anger and enthusiasm in equal measure, from across the political and journalistic spectrum.WikiLeaks poses a series of questions to the status quo in politics, journalism and to the ways we understand political communication.
It has compromised the foreign policy operations of the most powerful state in the world, broken stories comparable to great historic scoops like the Pentagon Papers, and caused the mighty international news organizations to collaborate with this tiny editorial outfit. Yet it may also be on the verge of extinction.This is the first book to examine WikiLeaks fully and critically and its place in the contemporary news environment.
The authors combine inside knowledge with the latest media research and analysis to argue that the significance of Wikileaks is that it is part of the shift in the nature of news to a network system that is contestable and unstable. Welcome to Wiki World and a new age of uncertainty.
Review
"A well–written and interesting account of WikiLeaks’ history"
Discourse and Communication
"An incisive overview of the Wikileaks saga and its implications."
The Age
"An excellent systematic documentation on the history of WikiLeaks and the controversial role of the founder."
Digital Journalism
"Would be an excellent text to assign in courses on journalism. It comes highly recommended, since it is full of insight, is easy to navigate and makes compelling arguments."
Central European Journal of International and Security Studies
"A cool–headed, astute analysis of the social, political and technological context in which the now infamous website was formed."
Engineering and Technology
"This excellent study is a fascinating insight into WikiLeaks and is the first bookt o examine this new phenomenon of the age."
Orange Standard
"In this terrific book, Charlie Beckett with James Ball weave the disparate threads of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks – the future of journalism, of statecraft, of secrecy – into a readable and compelling narrative. Essential for anyone interested in the future of free speech or global politics."
Clay Shirky, New York University
"A fascinating insight into Wikileaks, and what its version of transparency means for the ethics, focus and newly emerging forms of journalism in our time. Beckett and Ball have produced a book that combines timeliness with significance in its examination of the implications of Wikileaks for journalism."
David A L Levy, University of Oxford
"Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand one of the biggest revolutions for journalism, whistleblowing and freedom of information."
Jo Glanville, Editor, Index on Censorship