[Themaintainers] My Review of Stewart Brand's *Maintenance: Of Everything*, vol. 1.

[Lee Vinsel]

Oh, Camille!

I'm so sorry about that. That was my author bypass link. It must have
switched over to paywall too at some point.

Please find a pdf of the final galleys attached.

Lee

On Tue, Apr 28, 2026 at 6:22 AM Camille E. Acey <connect at camilleacey.com>
wrote:

> Thanks for sharing, Lee! Alas, the review is paywalled for us normies.
> Camille
> Camille E. Acey
> The Wind Down <https://wind-down.org> | Composting and Hospicing community
> <https://www.wind-down.org/community-of-practice/> | Closing Remarks
> newsletter <https://wind-down.org/newsletter/archive>
> New York, NY (GMT -5)
> *"Today, I choose to close the door to yesterday and open my mind, my
> heart, and my spirit to the blessings of this moment."* - Iyanla Vanzant
> <https://www.wind-down.org/2024/01/03/morning-closure-affirmation-by-iyanla-vanzant/>
>
> Apr 28, 2026 2:00:42 AM Lee Vinsel <lee.vinsel at gmail.com>:
>
> Hi, all.
>
> MIT Technology Review asked me to review Stewart Brand's new book,
> *Maintenance: Of Everything*, vol. 1
> <https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/04/17/1135408/book-review-stewart-brand-fixing-everything-maintenance/?utm_source=staff_social_outreach&utm_medium=tr_staff_social&utm_campaign=social&utm_content=guestbp>.
> Knowing Brand's earlier work well, I went into it with lots of questions,
> including about how Brand would treat labor, politics, and social
> structure. But the book was a lot worse than I expected. Beyond the foibles
> I anticipated, it just isn't very well put together. For example, it's
> loaded up with long block quotations and often feels like notes for a
> future work.
>
> I only briefly touch on my biggest disappointment in the review, though:
> Brand makes the empty and simply wrong claim that his book is the first
> account of maintenance we have. He could have used his massive platform for
> highlighting the work of junior, marginalized scholars who have been
> working on this topic for years now. To be clear, I'm not talking about me
> and Andy, who have gotten plenty of love for one lifetime. Over time, The
> Maintainers became more and more about the community, and there is a ton of
> great work in this network - a network Brand knows well - that could have
> been elevated and amplified. It's a shame.
>
> Otherwise, life is grand. I'm involved in a local community tool library
> here in Virginia's New River Valley and continue to work on maintenance and
> repair in other ways too. I hope to share about some of these things soon.
>
> And I hope you all are doing well, too.
>
> Lee
>
>
>
> --
> Associate Professor
> Department of Science, Technology, and Society
> Virginia Tech
> leevinsel.com
> @STS_News
>
>

-- 
Associate Professor
Department of Science, Technology, and Society
Virginia Tech
leevinsel.com
@STS_News
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