Palo Alto A history of California, capitalism, and the world

Numerous books have been written on the cultural history of California, including the comprehensive eight-volume series Americans and the California Dream, published between 1973 and 2009 by notable California historian Kevin Starr. Harris approaches the history of California through a much narrower lens by centering his discussion on the history of Palo Alto, CA. In what the publisher proclaims as "the first comprehensive, global history of Silicon Valley," Harris details the history and evolution of the region and its considerable influence on the global economy. Arranged chronologically into six sections that cover the period 1850--2020, the book focuses on the regional relationships among individuals, classes, and races that transformed the area into a complex, capitalist network with international reach. The establishment and growth of Stanford University plays a central role in the book as Harris explores the "Palo Alto System" approach to capitalism and the evolution of the Bay Area tech industry along with its central figures, including William Shockley Jr. and Frederick Terman, widely considered cofounders of modern-day Silicon Valley, to Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. This book serves as a thorough introduction to the intertwined history of California, the tech industry, and capitalism. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. --Eric Milenkiewicz, California State University, San Bernardino

Harris (Kids These Days, 2017; Sh*t is F*ucked Up and Bull*Shit, 2020), an editor at nonprofit news site The New Inquiry, explores the complicated history of Palo Alto, the Northern California city with a population of 68,000 and the home of Stanford University. Drawing on numerous sources, and occasionally from his own experiences, Harris painstakingly connects literature, geography, and economics to understand Palo Alto's history and its relationship to capitalism. In his overall critique of capitalism, Harris contends that its associated colonialism, exclusion, and exploitation have played crucial roles in developing the political policies and ideologies of Northern California over the past 150 years and have directly influenced local and U.S. technological and economic practices. Harris also covers the major players who shaped the city and their respective enterprises: Leland and Jane Stanford, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates. 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.

A searching history of California and its role in predatory, extractive capitalism. "California is very important for me," wrote Karl Marx in 1880, "because nowhere else has the upheaval most shamelessly caused by capitalist centralization taken place with such speed." Native son Harris, who quotes Marx's apothegm, begins his story of that upheaval with the Ohlone, Indigenous inhabitants of the Bay Area who were mistakenly assumed to have disappeared in a wave of genocide. It's easy to understand the confusion, since so many Native peoples were wiped out in the rush to ravage the lands and waters of California. The business of making a few people wealthy was the work of many. Chinese laborers, who were so instrumental in building the railroads, also labored in the farm fields until Mexican workers replaced them. The Irish and Swiss Italians did well in politics and winemaking, facing less prejudice than elsewhere, but as for people of color--well, consider that Palo Alto banned buildings over 40 feet high from residential areas, the better to control access to housing by lower-income people. Palo Alto is, of course, the home of Stanford University, which Harris sees as foil and fulcrum of the military-industrial complex. Said one dissident in the 1970s, "The university isn't a temple of the intellect or a place where disinterested scholars examine the world," but instead a hub of military research. While Harris nods with some appreciation to the techno-libertarians who invented the personal computer, he also urges that the real heroes were the builders and not the venture capitalists, those who have since become Silicon Valley royalty. In closing this long but consistently engaging narrative, the author proposes a program of divestiture and restitution, including "the forfeit of Stanford's vast accumulated wealth," that is breathtaking in its audacity--and probably doesn't stand a chance of being put in place. A highly readable revisionist history of the Golden State, sharply argued and well researched. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.