Now I Know Who My Comrades Are: Voices from the Internet Underground
*Starred Review* Parker, formerly with the policy-planning staff for digital diplomacy at the U.S. State Department, explores the lives of bloggers in China, Cuba, and Russia who are active critics of their governments. Through multiple interviews, her subjects discuss the ways in which they have challenged authority via social media. Although dissident use of the Internet is already part of the twenty-first-century story, Parker goes beyond the obvious headlines to the grinding daily battles of people and situations  that receive only passing media notice. Some of what  she reveals is stunning (2012 estimates find that only 5 percent of Cubans have regular access to the web), but the book’s greatest strength is the intimacy with which she describes the lives of her subjects. Parker portrays reluctant activists drawn into action for a variety of personal reasons who are alternately bemused and surprised by their resulting renown. In every case, they take their largely unfunded work seriously and embrace the struggle to bring openness to closed societies. Parker profiles fascinating people and effectively shows why, in hands like theirs, social media is one of the most important tools for conducting positive political and social change around the world. --Colleen Mondor