Published on July 31, 2019
Her sweeping new book about the history of Silicon Valley has University of Washington history professor Margaret O’Mara on a busy national book tour this summer. The book, “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America,” was published this month by Penguin Press and is receiving many positive reviews.
“The Code” takes the reader from the post-WWII beginnings of computer technology to the garages and dorm rooms of the emerging computer titans, through the dot.com boom and bust and up to the social media-saturated present.
O’Mara explores the power dynamics — and deeply ingrained misogyny — that kept women from full participation in this tech revolution. And she reminds readers that Silicon Valley’s boom was supported in large part by taxpayers via grants from the federal government.
Publishers Weekly said the book “puts a gloriously human face on the history of computing in the U.S.,” and calls it “a must-read for anyone interested in how a one-horse town birthed a revolution that has shifted the course of modern civilization.”
Continue reading at UW News.
Originally written by Peter Kelley for UW News.