Chinese internet users do not search on Google; they use Baidu. Their life story is found not on Facebook but on WeChat. Purchases come not from Amazon but from Alibaba. If this were merely an accident of history, a development arising from geographical and linguistic isolation, it would be just a footnote in the history of the internet. But the reality is far more significant, with profound and far-reaching consequences for everyone—whether in China or not. James Griffiths's new book, The Great Firewall of China, documents the history of the Chinese internet through a series of 25 cameos, drawing in the reader through narratives grounded in individual experience. He brings to bear his journalistic skills, both in engaging storytelling and in careful (well-footnoted) research. His special interest is in censorship and human rights, leading him to track down the accounts of (and often personally interview) numerous dissidents and dissenters.