The book is widely discredited and thankfully the barefoot running trend is behind us.
Now that's an oxymoron if I ever saw one!
Though, in a certain way, shoes can be said to be barefoot from the start: they aren't wearing any shoes themselves.
So yes, while it sounds like an oxymoron, it is actually just an industry term of art (you’ll see major companies advertise certain of their shoes as barefoot - Merrell comes to mind with their VaporGlove and Trail Glove, both of which are fantastic shoes).
The other nice thing about barefoot shoes (since I find myself in full on sales mode) is that due to the lack of padding, they last significantly longer than traditional mass market shoes. My trail runners (the Merrell’s) are in season 5 now, when my old trail shoes by Saucony lasted one season Max, and my mileage has increased substantially from when I used to wear the Saucony’s.
While some fundamentalists might go completely barefoot, I've always heard people talk about that book in terms of using light sole shoes instead of heavy shoes, not ditching protective footwear entirely. Even the subject of that book often wear thin moccasins during long distance runs.
I remember once bushwalking with a group and there was a sudden torrential rainstorm, and you could see all the little leeches sticking their heads up from the mud. By the time we got back to the van, I was the only one without a single leech on me.
I only ever had issues with cuts etc in town on the bitumen or gravel (but I suppose it could be quite dangerous in some parts of the world).