PALO ALTO A History of California, Capitalism, and the World

Patrick Harrison combines a fine storytelling style with a sure sense of the dramatic and a good tempo. His resonant voice fits this massive evocation of the dark side of Silicon Valley, the outsized role of technology giants, and the political influence of Stanford University's Hoover Institute. The thesis is that technological innovators and their political allies became unfathomably wealthy as they despoiled the planet, exploited workers, and were ruthless in the accumulation of money and power. Few heroes emerge in this massive yet compelling audiobook. Palo Alto itself is characterized by hyper-motivated high school students with an extraordinarily high suicide rate. And Stanford, which has the largest acreage of any U.S. university and which sits on Native American land, is described as a venal institution. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2023]