"Books as Bombs"

In the current (1/24/11) issue of The New Yorker, there is an article by Louis Menand about highly influential, even life-changing, nonfiction books published in the 1960s and 1970s; he particularly focuses on Betty Friedan's 1963 book, "The Feminine Mystique." Although the word "bomb" is a fraught one, Menand's use of the word in his title, "Books as Bombs," dramatically represents the way books in those days could make a huge difference, in a way that perhaps they no longer do in today's era of diffused media. Some of the other books discussed in this article are Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" (1962), an enormous factor in the beginning of the environmental movement, and Ralph Nader's "Unsafe at Any Speed" (1965), which kickstarted the consumer protection movement. I treasure the idea that books can have a powerful impact, changing people's lives, even saving lives. I am sorry if Menand is correct that they no longer do so in the same way today.