Douglas Thomas offers an in-depth history of this important and fascinating subculture, contrasting mainstream images of hackers with a detailed firsthand account of the computer underground. Thomas studies novels and films (Neuromancer, WarGames, Hackers, and The Matrix) and reveals contemporary views of hackers as technological wizards, high-tech pranksters, and virtual criminals. Thomas then examines the court cases of Kevin Mitnick and Chris Lamprecht to determine how hackers are defined as criminals. Thomas finds that popular hacker stereotypes express the public’s anxieties about the information age far more than they do the reality of hacking.

Douglas Thomas is associate professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.

Phreaks and Pr0phessors
This is a cultural and political study of hackers as researched by an academic, and as a former academic myself, I can tell you a bit about how this process works. A professor takes a subject of general interest and beats it senseless by applying intellectual theory, and constructs the study for other professors who are more concerned with accepted research methods, rather than knowledgeable general readers who might have an interest in learning more about the subject. Here, Douglas Thomas uncovers a number of fascinating aspects of hacker culture. These include the recent increase in political activism by hackers, their contradictory stances on secrecy and freedom of information, the back-and-forth influence of cyberpunk and science fiction (with some interesting connections to authors William Gibson and Bruce Sterling), and especially how popular views on the criminality of hackers is really an outgrowth of society’s latent fears of technological domination.

This could have been a truly fascinating book if Thomas hadn’t decided to turn on the professorisms and flog this interesting material to death with tired and soggy theory. Thomas frequently namedrops the classic social theoreticians Foucault, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, an exercise that serves little purpose other than impressing Thomas’ fellow professors. He also unleashes windy over-analysis of the texts of outdated movies and magazines, as well as the influential Hacker Manifesto. His attempts to build up his annoying concepts of boy culture and the influence of the body on virtual identity mostly fizzle out (run for your life when you see an author whipping out terms like those), and the book often deteriorates into obtuse and fatuous academic language like the over-analytical "freedom and secrecy were decontextualized to the point of solipsism," and pure useless professorial garbage like "the decomposition and recomposition of discourse." At times this book is surprisingly interesting for an academic cultural study, but remember who wrote it and for whom. [~doomsdayer520~]

balanced, thought-provoking, and clear (really!)
While people in previous reviews have complained that a) the prose is dense, and b) it’s out of date, I can say as an academic who has waded through most of the academic literature on hackers and hacker culture that Thomas’s prose, although indeed academic, is in contrast cystal clear. As well, his take on hackers is, in my opinion, more thorough and balanced than almost any other account I’ve seen.
What reviewers who want to either "watch the movie" or read an exciting book like "Cyberpunk" instead miss is that Thomas deconstructs both of these phenomena -- hackers in fiction and hackers in bombastic nonfiction, to create a portrayal of hacker culture in the popular media as well as in "real life." His aim is not just to talk about hackers but also the perception of hackers. Yes, it’s outdated (although how it could not be is difficult to say), but the truth is that most of the paradigm-setting portrayals of hackers were produced in the mid 1980s - mid 1990s, and as such the movies, fiction, journalism etc. from this time period are still quite relevant. It is not complete -- I fault him for instance for only fully deconstructing a few movies -- but it is by far the most complete in terms of showing both sides (fiction and reality, not hackers and law enforcement) that I have seen.
I would urge people, like the reviewer below, who are interested in hacker culture to visit sites like 2600; I would also urge them to read this book -- please! -- in addition to or instead of books like "Cyberpunk" and "The Cuckoo’s Egg."

Hacker History, for the Unenlightened
As others have mentioned in their reviews, this book was written by a highly academic author. Thus, the content is geared towards a college educated audience, or at least bright highschool students. As a computer engineering student, I found this book to be intruiging. Several hacking related movies were analyzed, and although slightly dated, these examples further the understanding of hacking history. The anecdotes are often amusing, and the main points of each section are deeply supported with sources and logical reasoning. Thomas’s overlying message is that the media cruelly slants the image of the benevolent hacker into one of a violent evil genius. I’d recommend this book to anyone above average computer user level, or those who have an interest in learning about computer history, and hackers in general.

A clear historical account
I found this to be a remarkable work which does a lot of explain who hackers are and where they came from. While it is true that the book deals quite a bit with the 1990s, it does so from an historical perspective. I’m not sure exactly how history can be called "outdated." I think what he was trying to say was that the movie Hackers influenced a generation of hackers, just as WarGames did a generation earlier. At least that was my reading.

This is definately an academic book, written by an academic, published by an academic press, so you have to expect that it will be over some people’s heads. It may have been smarter for the author to rely on more examples and stories and to not probe the issues quite so deeply or try to create a theory about who hackers are or what their cultural significance is in such a hostile, anti-intellectual climate. As for me, the book made me think.

Apparently that is too much work for some people. Not a light read, but "by my lights" not many things worth reading are. I mean since when has a favorable comparison to Henry James been considered an insult?

Rent the movie...
This book is written by an academic who is so far behind the times that he spends a good chunk of the book writing about, "Hackers," the movie from 1995. Huh? The writing does not flow and the information is outdated. If you want to know about hacker culture go to 2600 - dot - org. Good thing I checked it out from the library.