The Pacific Circuit

A Globalized Account of the Battle for the Soul of an American City

De: Alexis Madrigal

Narrado por: Alexis Madrigal

This audiobook, written and read by Alexis Madrigal, reveals how understanding Oakland explains the modern world.

In The Pacific Circuit, the award-winning journalist Alexis Madrigal sculpts an intricate tableau of the city of Oakland that is at once a groundbreaking big-idea book, a deeply researched work of social and political history, and an intimate portrait of an essential American city that has been at the crossroads of the defining themes of the twenty-first century.

Oakland’s stories encompass everything from Silicon Valley’s prominence and the ramifications of a compulsively digital future to the underestimated costs of technological innovation on local communities—all personified in this changing landscape for the city’s lifelong inhabitants.

The Pacific Circuit holds a magnifying glass to the scars etched by generations of systemic segregation and the ceaseless march of technological advancement. These are not just abstract concepts; they are embedded in the very fabric of Oakland and its people, from dockworkers and community organizers to real estate developers and businesspeople chasing the highest possible profits. Madrigal delves into city hall politics, traces the intertwining arcs of venture capital and hedge funds, and offers unprecedented insight into Silicon Valley’s genesis and growth, all against the backdrop of Oakland—a city vibrating with untold stories and unexplored connections that can, when explored carefully, reveal exactly how our markets and our world really function.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

©2025 Alexis Madrigal (P)2025 Macmillan Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"The Pacific Circuit gives us a thrilling new kind of historical storytelling. Madrigal masterfully weaves together the financial, technological, and geological forces that shaped his hometown, and shows us how individual lives were shaped by these powerful currents. It’s a story about race, urban planning, imperialism, neighborhood activism, technological innovation—the entire complex system, from the hyperlocal to the global, that gives rise to the places we live."—Steven Johnson, author of The Ghost Map and How We Got to Now

"I’ve been lucky to encounter great books about local history and great books about the global networks that undergird our daily experience, but The Pacific Circuit is one of a precious few that tackle both at once. Madrigal’s ability to connect the local to the global so completely represents a masterful feat of research and storytelling. It also models a challenging and urgently needed way of seeing—one that's as crucial for understanding the places we love as it is for imagining their futures."—Jenny Odell, author of How to Do Nothing and Saving Time

"A dazzlingly imaginative (and surprisingly hopeful) telling of how everything—our cities, our globalized economy, our planet—ended up this way—and how it all started in Oakland. The Pacific Circuit is a marvel of real-life storytelling, making the world around us feel vast and magical, full of casual treachery as well as spaces of hope."—Hua Hsu, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Stay True