Palo Alto

A History of California, Capitalism, and the World

De: Malcolm Harris

Narrado por: Patrick Harrison

The history of Silicon Valley, from railroads to microchips, is an “extraordinary” story of disruption and destruction, told for the first time in this comprehensive, jaw-dropping narrative (Greg Grandin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The End of the Myth).

Palo Alto’s weather is temperate, its people are educated and enterprising, its corporations are spiritually and materially ambitious and demonstrably world-changing. Palo Alto is also a haunted toxic waste dump built on stolen Indian burial grounds, and an integral part of the capitalist world system.

In PALO ALTO, the first comprehensive, global history of Silicon Valley, Malcolm Harris examines how and why Northern California evolved in the particular, consequential way it did, tracing the ideologies, technologies, and policies that have been engineered there over the course of 150 years of Anglo settler colonialism, from IQ tests to the "tragedy of the commons," racial genetics, and "broken windows" theory. The Internet and computers, too. It's a story about how a small American suburb became a powerful engine for economic growth and war, and how it came to lead the world into a surprisingly disastrous 21st century. PALO ALTO is an urgent and visionary history of the way we live now, one that ends with a clear-eyed, radical proposition for how we might begin to change course.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Malcolm Harris's singular and brilliant PALO ALTO is a geologic survey of the bedrock of the imperial violence that lies beneath the surface of some of the country's wealthiest ZIP Codes. The formations it follows stretch outward across the globe, to Asia, Europe, across the Americas and to the rest of the United States. In the end, the book provides not so much an account of strict cause and effect—the familiar history of the robber barons and tech tycoons—but a core sample of the thorough-going greed and pillage at the heart of American history: the expropriation, the violence, and the guilt that seep upward through the soil of neoliberalism's most fruitful plain.”—Walter Johnson, Winthrop Professor of History and African American Studies at Harvard University and author of The Broken Heart of America

"Extraordinary. In lucid, personal, often funny, and always insightful prose, Malcolm Harris finds the driving thrust of reaction not in capitalism’s left-behind regions but in its vanguard: California, and specifically Silicon Valley. We have not yet felt the full force of the shit storm that the titans of tech have been conjuring. We soon will. If you want to understand what’s coming, you need to read this book."

—Greg Grandin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The End of Myth

“Harris painstakingly connects literature, geography, and economics to understand Palo Alto's history and its relationship to capitalism…Readers interested in U.S. history, particularly pertaining to capitalism and technology, will find an engaging and clear-eyed Silicon Valley tale of a small city with global importance.”—BOOKLIST

Yes, it's Marxist. it's also good.

I imagine you'll see in the coming weeks, months, or years, no less than a dozen reviews that say "Wow what garbage, socialism in history? what are this guys qualifications?? I don't need this America hating garbage!" which first, very funny that you bought a book that describes itself as a "Marxist history" expecting something else, and second, is so bad faith an argument against this book that it isn't worth engaging with in the slightest.

Simply put, this is a work of genius. an elegant sweeping group of narratives that is, in fact, pretty fair to a lot of the players involved. From the earliest days of the American project to settle the furthest frontier to the screeching digital age, this strange patch of land just south of California is shown to be a synecdoche of a far larger world, a microcosm of soul sickness and horrors and fascinating uniquely American figures who themselves reflect social and economic forces beyond their personal control.

you can disagree with the conclusions or asides, certainly, and there are some ways where this shows itself to be more an informal history than an academic work of dry rote observation, but behind those conclusions, and before any of that, there are very interesting and well written passages that flow beautifully into this nearly 30 hour odyssey. there is a Hobsbawm style wit to the historiography, which kept me so engrossed that I literally ended up working an additional hour not realizing I was just sitting down mesmerized by the story of Herbert Hoover's adventures through Stanford University's founding class.

also the narrator is very good but my wife thinks he sounds sarcastic most of the time. which might be a selling point for some people.

five stars! give it a read if you love the film Chinatown! similar stories of california-cities-as-vampires

The Ideal Silicon Valley Book

A must read for ambitious tech entrepreneurs who wish to go settle in Palo Alto and take part in the final Gold Rush

Logical left-leaning view. On point

Fantastic information. The history and analysis covered in this book is second to none. I’ve already recommended it to 10 people, some of which are madly in love with Capitalist. Here’s to making them rethink and recalibrate their orientation.

Historically thorough

Detailed, well, researched history, delivered from a clearly stated point of view. The author makes no bones about his left word bias, but does not let his context interfere with reporting facts. I consider this book to be an excellent source of information for someone who does not mind getting into the weeds of detail.

bold, extensively sourced theory of capitalism…

with Palo Alto as the example / major practicioner. i feel like i have a dozen more boons to read from Harrison’s sources before i can even get my head around how much of his theory seems sound.

twist at the end

I enjoyed the history in the book. maybe I wasn't listening closely enough to the disdain of capitalism throughout but I was honestly a little shocked by the twist in the last chapter and its recommendations

Palo Alto as a likely proxy for ails of capitalism

gold mining was just the beginning for pillaging the planet for resources. Palo alto raised the art of taking more to a science and shows how we may have nothing left for an encore.. interesting slant on a glowing history of brutal composition.

A must read for students of history!

Harris does an exceptional job of connecting the dots to historical forces that perpetuate raw capitalism.

Outstanding book. Essential reading.

This is an outstanding book that explains so much about how the world works today, how we got here, and where we’re headed.

This book is a must read for anyone but those working for Silicon Valley in particular

If you care about the larger context in which Silicon Valley rose to prominence this book is for you. If you don’t want to read about ethnic cleansing, rampant racism an support for eugenics this book may not be for you.