The Mechanic and the Luddite, by JathanSadowski (Uppsala, Sweden: University of California Press, 2025) Uppsala, Sweden

In The Mechanic and the Luddite, critical technology scholar Jathan Sadowski draws on his extensive body of work to advance a materialist critique of the integration of capitalism and technology. As models/heuristics for this critique, Sadowski proposes that we adopt the perspectives of both mechanics (people with an intricate understanding of the inner workings of machines) and Luddites (people assessing the machines' very desirability). In applying these perspectives, he takes us on a winding journey through the contemporary tech landscape, covering broad themes like innovation, labour, rentierism, risk, and the business of futurism. The book is aimed at a general readership and requires minimal knowledge of the themes covered. In fact, the people who need this book the most are probably those who rely on digital technology in their everyday life but have not fully reflected on the larger economic, technical, and ideological systems of which these gadgets are part. The book has many strengths. First, it is refreshing that Sadowski is so unapologetically frank in his verdict of the tech sector. He clearly has no ambitions to enter the industry as a consultant should he lose his academic tenure. On the contrary, he repeatedly and correctly frames his position as ‘ruthless’. Even so, every claim is properly supported by one or several concrete examples and empirical data. Unlike many other tech critics, Sadowski is never sweeping in his remarks. He knows very well what he is talking about, from the nature and logic of venture capital to the role of data in the insurance industry. This adds to the accessibility of the book and sometimes adds an almost comical element by putting the unhinged madness of the tech sector at full display, undressing the dominant ideologues of our time. The book is clearly meant as a crossover title, aimed not only at fellow academics but the broader reading public. Yet the content does not sit entirely comfortable with the typical format of a crossover book. As political theorist Johan Tralau once told me, there are two types of authors. One is the train conductor, who puts you in your seat and takes you on a journey to a single destination. Perhaps there are stops along the way, but they are ultimately part of the same quest. The other type of author is the salesman, who presents the reader with a smorgasbord of items from which they can choose themselves. Both styles can make great books, but not under the same title. The Mechanic and the Luddite sometimes suffers from trying to be both. The overarching approach—that we should emulate the mechanic in his intricate knowledge of the machine, while following the Luddite doctrine of asking whether the machine should exist in the first place—is interesting and evocative. Sadowski's vindication of the Luddites is among the most refreshing elements of the book. Yet these characters disappear from the narrative almost as soon as they appear, leaving room for a series of stand-alone essays in which the main frame is implicit. Sadowski motivates this move by stating that it would be ‘clunky, stylistically and analytically’ to explicate the main frame in the individual chapters. ‘Imagine if I were regularly saying things like “If we think about this like a mechanic” or “as a Luddite would say”’ he says, so as to illustrate that it would get tiresome (47–48). I get the rationale, but still, I believe that leaving at least the Luddite implicit was a mistake. I would have loved to read more about how an explicitly Luddite approach can help us understand today's technology, to see it in action throughout the individual chapters. Since the book's conceptual frame remains implicit throughout (the terms mechanic and Luddite only reappear in the very last pages), it is not always clear to the reader what holds the book together, beyond the depravity of the tech industry. Or, put in more formal terms, the analysis sometimes comes across as a bit theoretically vague. Surely, this is not because Sadowski is any stranger to theory. His previous works are all but void of theory. Rather, I suspect that he wants to shield himself from boring lay readers with the theoretical jargon that plagues much of leftist critique, and that the many examples are meant to ground the analysis in clear observational facts, rather than sweeping moralism. As such, the book's biggest strength – its many concrete examples and rich empirical detail – also becomes its main weakness. I have learned a lot from reading it, but I sometimes struggle to get a clear view of the forest (the perspective(s) of the mechanic and the Luddite), for all the trees (the rich examples from the industry). In the end, The Mechanic and the Luddite is a much-needed contribution to the current state of techno-social critique. It is well-researched and well-written, and it offers a sobering perspective. I hope it ends up as course literature in many classrooms across the planet and is picked up beyond the walls of academia. Research data are not shared.