Cuts past the deceit, examining the histories the fable dresses up in heroic garb.

Aan encyclopedic account of the history and impact of the town—feels like the culmination of [Harris'] upbringing and career. It’s a stunning, Technicolor anvil of a book.

Since 'California has a privileged place' in the capitalist story, and capitalism controls the world, this book aims to explain, well, pretty much everything. It does not succeed.

Harris has dug deep into the task. The scheme here is history as microcosm: Palo Alto works outward from scrupulous specifics to an epic panoramic recasting of our whole dire situation. The book should be of urgent interest to anyone living inside its ambit—that being, according to its subtitle, California, capitalism, and the world.

This is less a history of capitalism than a condemnation. With its tangents and excursions...you may find yourself coming back to the same question: What exactly does this have to do with Palo Alto?.

The book presents a polemical but thorough history.

Deeply researched and richly detailed.

The depersonalization on display here is a welcome corrective to the overpersonalized way that history is typically written for a general audience.

A searching history.