Let me just add my take here. You don't have to agree with it. But it seems unrepresentative for this to be the only remark about the Elements of Style. I star

Let me just add my take here. You don't have to agree with it. But it seems unrepresentative for this to be the only remark about the Elements of Style. I started to read the PDF you link to, "The Land of the Free." I found myself disagreeing with sentence after sentence. It doesn't help that he uses Strunk's first edition, which is very, very different from the famous second and third editions (my favorite). The edition he looks at is just Strunk. There is no White. - Strunk and White did not write it together. Strunk was one of White's professors. Strunk had a homemade textbook. Strunk died. Decades later, White's publisher asked White to take Strunk's old handbook and rewrite and add some stuff. White did. The second edition. I can't remember if I have read this edition. I own the third edition and have read it over and over. - When I look at the first edition online, it is much less inspiring. It has a lot more tedious tidbits and completely lacks the second half that White added. - Even the third edition has stuff that I'm not sure is that important. But for me the overall gist was groundbreaking. Things like shorter is better. Don't try to be fancy and draw attention to yourself. Basically, writing is not some competition for fanciness. Many people think it is, but if you are trying to write for the sake of the reader --- instead of just to make yourself look good --- you will try to write efficiently and clearly. - To me this was groundbreaking, because in not a single English class was this book ever mentioned, the overall teaching of all my classes was totally different, and the output by most of the world (blogs, textbooks, emails, whatever) seems to indicate that they have never read Strunk and White at all. "The Land of the Free" seems to say the opposite, that the Elements of Style is oppressing everyone, that most people are following it. Maybe in his neck of the woods, but not anywhere I have been.