PositiveThe Los Angeles Review of BooksMarkoff’s biography will likely be the last word on Brand for some time. His approach to his sources is vexing, however. He made heavy use of the thousands of pages of Brand’s papers archived at Stanford University for quotes like the ones above. However, because Whole Earth \'is not intended as a scholarly volume,\' Markoff provides no footnotes. This is disappointing given the richness of the material he uncovered. Scholars hoping to understand the source or context of the scores of lively and intriguing quotes are condemned to tracking down the originals. The only positive outcome I can see is that a new cohort of scholars will be forced to rediscover Brand, and to fashion new narratives that complement or challenge Markoff’s ... Since more than half of Markoff’s time is devoted to Brand’s life and activities through the early 1970s, when he was still just in his early 30s, the next half-century gets brisk treatment. Nonetheless, Markoff is able to survey a remarkable number of fascinating and thematically coherent episodes.
Margaret O'Mara
PositiveLos Angeles Review of BooksThe Code, Margaret O’Mara’s ambitious new history of Silicon Valley, can be read as a story of binaries, or at least of stark contrasts in terms of interpretative frameworks for understanding how Santa Clara Valley became \'Silicon Valley\' ... The government’s role isn’t news to academic historians but it might come as a surprise to the general audience O’Mara’s book is intended for. Not necessarily always a sexy story, it’s nonetheless an important one that destabilizes popular notions about the region ... O’Mara’s detailed narration of how lobbyists, entrepreneurs, and politicians worked to their mutual advantage is not just important historically but also informs contemporary controversies over the tax breaks given to businesses, especially those like Apple that park huge sums of cash offshore. In a series of richly detailed anecdotes—one might have wanted a little more analysis—O’Mara explores how executives, lawyers, and lobbyists won a series of battles to convert federal laws into a tailwind that propelled their region’s growth ... O’Mara’s narrative unveils Silicon Valley as its own special interest group ... O’Mara acknowledges this environmental impact [of the tech industry] but—as in other places in her book—one wishes for a little more analysis and direct critique, especially given the likelihood that her book will reach a large audience (and deservedly so) ... On another note, the main cast of characters in O’Mara’s telling can also be problematic at times ... these people [of color and women] rarely become more than colorful sprinkles scattered on a heaping dish of vanilla ice cream ... While she doesn’t walk through all the doors her book points to, Margaret O’Mara’s book surveys the history of a complex territory while suggesting new paths for future writers to pursue.
Audra J. Wolfe
PositiveLos Angeles Book ReviewWolfe’s new book, Freedom’s Laboratory, frontally addresses questions of what science is, how it is best done, and how it (and scientists themselves) might be strategically deployed to advance national interests. As suggested by its subtitle — The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science — after World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a global free-for-all to win hearts, minds, and markets. This extended to \'science.\' Americans exerted their minds and money to distinguish a \'good\' American science from its communist — and, therefore, by definition compromised — counterpart ... As Wolfe convincingly argues, these efforts were based from the outset in a questionable assumption: that American science, perhaps like America itself, was exceptional in being inherently apolitical ... Wolfe offers a damning critique of attempts to use science to promote internationalism and an American-inflected idea of freedom.
Alexandra Wolfe
PositiveLos Angeles Review of BooksMeet the conned, who, alas, include the author of Valley of the Gods: A Silicon Valley Story. Alexandra Wolfe spins a tale of Silicon Valley absurdity masquerading as altruism, although she’s unlikely to pitch it in these terms ... Wolfe certainly benefited from access to a colorful class of characters, even if they are predominantly male and resolutely infantile ... Adding insult to injury is Wolfe’s sometimes shaky understanding of how Silicon Valley got to be the 'valley of the gods' ... In this story, regulations and rules seem hardly to matter, which may explain why Santa Clara County has two dozen Superfund cleanup sites.
