I just received my copy of Untidy: The Blogs on Rumsfeld. It is a book that collects writings from bloggers — including myself — critical of Rumsfeld. I don’t subscribe to any form of blog triumphalism, but, reading these entries, I was struck by just how good the writing actually was. People like Tim Dunlop, Jeanne, Digby, Ted Barlow, and Jeralyn Merrit, to name just a few (the complete list of contributers can be found here) , have a remarkable way with words. The book is worth having to just to have some of these essays in permanent form, but the book is also encouraging in that it represents a recognition that there are people saying worthwhile things outside of the normal Washington-New York pundit axis. If blogs really are going to be a new kind of citizen journalisms or a modern version of the Enlightenment’s pamphleteers, then books like this will help pave the way.

You can purchase a copy from the publisher here.