Trolling on the internet looks and feels like a new phenomenon. Abuse can rain down on a target instantly and from everywhere, in quantities never before seen. But as David Rudrum’s engaging book on the history of trolling shows, the desire to hurt or distract another with words goes back a very long way. The internet is a powerful new medium, but ancient messages travel on it.
Review: Trolling before the Internet: An Offline History of Insult, Provocation, and Public Humiliation in the Literary Classics – David Rudrum (Bloomsbury)
