Palo Alto

A History of California, Capitalism, and the World

By: Malcolm Harris

Narrated by: 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.

©2023 Malcolm Harris (P)2023 Little, Brown & Company

Critic reviews

“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.

capitalism from there to here

An eye opening narrative. This should be a required course in college civics.
Wonderful

Must Read

A solid history of Palo Alto and it’s role in US history. It is much in the spirit of Zinn’s ‘A People’s History.’
Gonna make sure it gets added to the kids’ school library and reading list.

Uneven

This book strays far afield from its title. Sometimes interesting, sometimes not. I found myself doubting some statements given as fact. The narration was very grating—the snark factor was off the charts.

Great historical writing

Broad breath of subjects covered,m while making compelling connections between them. Outstanding work. Essential reading for those who want to understand current American affairs

The breadth of time and material and scope

Enjoyed the long ride through US expansionist history as seen via the Palo Alto Prism

An view of Capitalism through Northern Cali

The Book is starts at the beginning of California with the removal of Native American Tribes and ends with the PayPal mafia. It’s an insightful exploration about innovation, greed, and power.

Wonderful heterodox history

I’ve been looking forward to this one for awhile and it did not disappoint. Great!