Middleboro Review et al

How Zuckerberg’s Facebook is like Gutenberg’s printing press A statue of Martin Luther holding his translation of the New Testament into German sits in front of the city hall in Wittenberg, Germany. (Hendrik Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images) BY JAMES HOHMANN with Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve THE BIG IDEA: PALO ALTO, Calif.—When historian Niall Ferguson moved from Harvard to Stanford two years ago, he was struck by Silicon Valley’s indifference to history.  The hubris he saw reminded him of what he encountered on Wall Street as he researched a book about the history of banking during the years before the financial crisis. He became convinced the technology sector was careening toward its own crisis and decided to write about it. The crisis has finally arrived, thanks to Cambridge Analytica, conveniently timed to coincide with the publication of Ferguson’s new book on the history of social networks, from the Freemasons to Facebook.  “ The Square and the Tower ” ...