The five best books for understanding Silicon Valley’s history

IF SILICON VALLEY were a country, its GDP would be greater than that of Finland. The Californian tech hub’s immense power and wealth mean its history is worth studying, not least by others who dream of emulating its success—and avoiding its failures. Many of the Valley’s own leaders do study its history. This selection of books may help you get into their heads. Here, in chronological order, are the five best books on the history of Silicon Valley, plus a television show and film.

The Dream Machine. By M. Mitchell Waldrop. Stripe Press; 528 pages. $20 and £18

Silicon Valley did not, in fact, start in Silicon Valley. Many of the earliest foundations of computing were laid on America’s east coast, particularly in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Washington, DC. Mr Waldrop’s book, first released in 2001, chronicles the work of pioneers including John von Neumann, Vannevar Bush and Alan Turing. But it focuses on J.C.R. “Lick” Licklider, an early employee of the Pentagon’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, which later became DARPA. A visionary with a budget, Mr Licklider used military money to fund projects that directly led to the advent of personal computers—most notably ARPANET, precursor to the internet. Mr Waldrop’s book is an important reminder that Silicon Valley grew not from startups, but within universities and governments.

From Satori to Silicon Valley. By Theodore Roszak. Don’t Call It Frisco Press; 64 pages; Available online

Much has been written on Silicon Valley’s connection to the hippie movement of the 1960s. For a quick introduction, it is hard to do better than Theodore Roszak’s polemical essay, first delivered as a lecture in 1985. Mr Roszak surveys some of the most influential thinkers of the Sixties, including Stewart Brand and his intellectual idol Buckminster Fuller, in an attempt to show how Buddhist-infused hippie thinking turned into techno-optimism. Early Valley pioneers, Mr Roszak says, saw tech as a way to jump to a blissful post-industrial future. LSD, a popular drug at the time, was a chemically synthesised shortcut to enlightenment. Mr Roszak does not hide his scorn and readers may disagree with his conclusions, but the information he presents helps to explain a part of the Valley’s early philosophy.

Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age. By Michael A. Hiltzik. Harper Business; 480 pages; $17.99. Orion Business; £18

Many of the 20th century’s important inventions were products of corporate research labs: Bell Labs developed the transistor; IBM delivered hard-disk drives. But the greatest lab of all belonged to Xerox, a photocopier manufacturer. Starting in 1970, its Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC) pioneered personal computing, developing graphical interfaces, Ethernet and many other critical technologies. Mr Hiltzik’s pacy book shows how, by adopting DARPA’s free-for-all approach to research, PARC became a hub of innovation. He demonstrates its influence, too: PARC’s alumni, some of whom ended up founding Adobe and Pixar, seeded the Valley with the centre’s can-do spirit.

Steve Jobs. By Walter Isaacson. Simon & Schuster; 630 pages; $35. Little, Brown; £25

“Dealers of Lightning” ends with the ascent of Apple Computer. “Steve Jobs”, a captivating biography of the company’s founder, explains how Apple succeeded—and how Mr Jobs then brought it back from the dead two decades later. Thanks to hours of interviews with Mr Jobs, Mr Isaacson’s biography offers a personal look at the prickly man who shaped much of the modern world. Mr Isaacson’s portrayal is balanced, shying away from neither Mr Jobs’s achievements nor his difficult personality. That personality proved to be as influential as his products: Mr Jobs’s “reality distortion field”, which inspired cult-like loyalty in his staff, has been adopted by many modern founders. It can also explain some of tech’s biggest flops.

No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram. By Sarah Frier. Simon & Schuster; 352 pages; $28. Random House Business; £9.99

A popular genre of business books is stories of such failures, including WeWork and Theranos. But why not instead learn from one of the modern Valley’s successes with “No Filter”, which chronicles the rise of Instagram? Ms Frier presents a captivating account of the startup and its rapid rise. Most riveting are passages on Instagram’s acquisition, which offer a look at Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey’s negotiating tactics. (Mr Dorsey, who ran Twitter at the time, and Mr Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook, both tried to buy Instagram; Facebook ended up purchasing the company for $1bn in 2012, a record sum then for a startup.)

Also try:

For lighter fare, the fictional television show “Halt and Catch Fire” brings to life the thrilling, “anything can happen” attitudes of early hacker culture. Or watch “Pirates of Silicon Valley”, a dramatised movie about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Mr Gates, at least, has called it “reasonably accurate”.
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