Book Review - The Revolt of the Public

I thought I was late reading it when I picked up this book in 2021. Originally published in 2014 and later updated after Brexit and the 2016 US elections. Stripe thought it was good enough to repubish it as part of their Ideas for progress program, and I was curious to read it. As I read it in 2025 - it still holds its relevance.

It took me a few years to come back to it and finish. Current events, like the recent “Discord revolution in Nepal” add new layers to the same patterns Gurri described years ago. Questions of censorship, information flows and justifiable authority continue to evolve.

So what’s the book about?

It offers a perspective on world events through the lens of a former CIA analyst, Martin Gurri, whose job was to study global developments and asses their significance for the US Government. His approach is systematic, scientific almost. He invites the reader to challenge his conclusions and consider alternative versions, which I appreciate. Afterall, he’s attempting to connect broad, seemingly unrelated events, a process that can easily veer into overreach and conspiracy theories.

The book explores the revolutions and protest movements around 2010-11 in Egypt, Tunisia, the Indignados in Spain, tent protests in Israel, Turkey, and the “Occupy Wall Street” movement in the US, later expanding to Brexit and Trump.

Gurri describes these upheavals as part of a larger shift, what he calls ‘The Fifth Wave’.

As information networks become decentralised and authority over the information flow diffuses, traditional power structures struggle to maintain control and their position. It may sound like the power shift should lead to a more democratic society, however, the author’s concern is, as I understood it, is that instead - it threatens democracy. Not purely because of the shift in influence, but because the shift is towards negation without structure - tearing down without proposing alternatives.

Gurri’s writing is accessible and conversational, he presents an opinion, without expecting you to take it as fact.

Most of us have heard about those events and are familiar with them to some degree, but he definitely adds detail and depth. Even though years have passed since it’s been published and new events continue to compete for our attention, his analysis offers a coherent framework for understanding how they connect. Even if it’s not the only way to interpet these events, it’s a valuable lens to keep in mind.

I’d recommend it to anyone interested in global politics, media, or how human systems adapt (or fail) to the information age.