The Silicon Boys: And Their Valley of Dreams

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Pop quiz: Where are American kids taught the nuances of being millionaires as part of their junior high curriculum? Where do guests at a posh outdoor party grouse about the defects of high-end flushable Porta-Johns? Where does a school auction rake in $439,000? The answer: Silicon Valley, of course. David A. Kaplan captures all that excess and more in The Silicon Boys.

Kaplan's book is a history of the Valley, from the time when Stanford professor Frederick Terman encouraged David Packard and Bill Hewlett to establish their own company to when Sequoia Capital invested $1 million in a startup founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo. In between are the many Valley legends, including Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel, Kleiner Perkins, Apple, Oracle, and Netscape--as well as some of its most notable failures and tragedies, such as William Shockley and Gary Kildall. While the book begins with the opulence of Woodside, California, it ends surprisingly enough in Portland, Maine, with Bob Metcalfe, founder of 3Com, who fled the Valley for something "fresher" and "more alive."

As he traces the short history of the area, Kaplan, a senior writer at Newsweek, detects a not-so-subtle change in its values. He writes, "Nobody appears to be having quite as good a time in Silicon Valley. Passions have become mere professions; impulsiveness is now compulsiveness.... The Valley once was a new machine. It changed the world. It may do so yet again. But the machine has no soul anymore." Here's a thoughtful and colorful read for anyone interested in one of the most dynamic places on the planet. --Harry C. Edwards

Book Description

In "the best book to date on the subject" (San Francisco Chronicle), prize-winning journalist David A. Kaplan brings to life the culture and history of Silicon Valley. The symbol of high-tech genius and ineffable wealth, a place that competes with Hollywood and Washington in the zeitgeist of success and excess, the Valley is the epicenter of the New Economy. Depending on yesterday's stock market close, roughly a quartermillion Siliconillionaires live in the Valley. And they're building megalo-mansions and buying Lamborghinis as fast as they can. Combining reportorial insight and biting wit, The Silicon Boys tells the unforgettable story of dreams and greed, ambition and luck, that has become the Valley of the Dollars.

Customer Reviews:

Enthralling.......2006-02-18

I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to end. For anyone interested in the culture of Silcion Valley it is a must read. Yes, as other reviewers pointed out it jumps around quite a bit. Both in terms of pace and interest. However, taken as a whole it provides exciting stories of busines, personal flare, finance, and technology. A good read for anyone with at least a vague interest in the subject matter.

Good Description of Silicon Valley.......2003-02-04

"The Silicon Boys and Their Valley of Dreams" is a well written description of Silicon Valley at it's peak. It describes the culture of the valley during the nineties. It is an interesting peek into the a world of driven software developers and venture capitalists and everyone else in their galaxies. It focuses on companies and names we've all heard of: Apple, Oracle, Netscape, Microsoft, Intel, and many more. For anyone in the technology industry, this book is a good window onto the 90s - pre dotcom mania.

Solid Silicon Story.......2002-10-19

This was one of the best Silly Valley stories I've read yet. Kaplan does a very good job offering a historical and chronological storyline that educates the reader while holding interest. Hence an educational book that also happens to be very unique and authentic.

Silicon Boys Book Review.......2002-07-11

The non-fiction book The Silicon Boys and Their Valley of Dreams is written by David A. Kaplan. It is about how Silicon Valley started and why it is important to be near all the silicon in California. Also it explains who invented and invents the processors and software. It talks about Intel, then Apple and Microsoft, after that Oracle, then Kleiner Perkins, Mozilla, Microsoft, and finally Yahoo.

David A. Kaplan used many correct facts and you can see who his sources are in the back of the book. It is organized chronologically starting at the early `70s when "The Traitorous Eight" first started developing processors. It concludes in 1999 when Microsoft was developing Internet Explorer and Yahoo was popular. Each chapter talks about a company or person or both.

I think it was a very good book. It told me a lot about the computer industry and the people behind it. If you don't care much about computers you shouldn't read this book but if you even have a slight interest, you'd like this book. The author did a very good job explaning the aspects of the computer industry, so even if you don't know much about computers you can understand this book.

Fun romp.......2002-01-07

Great read on the culture of the Silicon Valley and how tycoons like Jobs, Yang, Ellison, Andreesen, and Clark built their companies. Learn about how the "biggest legal creation of wealth in history" all happened. Kaplan does an excellent job writing in a witty biting way.

The Silicon Boys and Their Valley of Dreams.(Brief Article)(Review) (book reviews): An article from: Chief Executive (U.S.)

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The Silicon Boys and Their Valley of Dreams.(Brief Article)(Review) (book reviews): An article from: Chief Executive (U.S.)

Manufacturer: Chief Executive Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000997P5K
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Chief Executive (U.S.), published by Chief Executive Publishing on October 1, 1999. The length of the article is 843 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Silicon Boys and Their Valley of Dreams.(Brief Article)(Review) (book reviews)
Publication: Chief Executive (U.S.) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 1999
Publisher: Chief Executive Publishing
Page: 74

Article Type: Brief Article, Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

TWO BOOKS ON SILICON VALLEY.(Review) (book review): An article from: Technical Communication

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TWO BOOKS ON SILICON VALLEY.(Review) (book review): An article from: Technical Communication
Garret Romaine
Manufacturer: Society for Technical Communication
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Technical Communication, published by Society for Technical Communication on February 1, 2000. The length of the article is 3696 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: TWO BOOKS ON SILICON VALLEY.(Review) (book review)
Author: Garret Romaine
Publication: Technical Communication (Refereed)
Date: February 1, 2000
Publisher: Society for Technical Communication
Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Page: 110

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

When deciding which athletes to profile, our editors take into account not only a player's statistics, but also his character. SPI takes care to select athletes who are known to be community minded and can serve as role models.

The biographical material on each athlete covers him from his earliest days to the present.

Book Description

Part Two Of Two Parts

The emergence of California as a regional civilization in the late nineteenth century was far more than a dramatic and colorful chapter in American history. Probing the inner experience of California's formative years, Starr blends fact and historical vision with striking metaphor to re-create the nature of the California dream and reveal its significance as a social, psychological and symbolic enterprise. Commemorative in approach, this totally engaging work shows how the land and the people interacted to form a distinct and fascinating culture. While dramatizing the debate over what California was and what it should be, Starr also exposes the fallacies and contradictions inherent in the dream itself. All the ferment of the state's history is presented here as the citizens themselves lived through it.

Customer Reviews:

Good institutional history.......2004-11-23

Starr's cultural history of California is more institutional history than anything else. It's full of dates and events surrounding the history of colleges and churches and the people who founded them. One can easily sense Starr's interest in intellectual history as reflected in architecture and education which, ironically, is a very East-coast way of looking at West-coast culture. Starr's book is good if you like that sort of thing, but it's not a tempting study for those more fascinated with flesh and bone rather than brick and stone. Some could claim that it misses the fundamental essense of California culture altogether.

This first book of the series is heavily centered around San Francisco and its related institutions.

The Psychology of California's Formative Years.......2004-01-14

As a native Californian (San Francisco) I read this book after seeing it cited again and again as an excellent entry point for a study of California history.

I was not disappointed. I believe this book is widely acknowledged as a classic in the field of California history, and I certainly wouldn't disagree with that judgment.

Prof. Starr attempts to illuminate the psychology of early California by providing mini-biographies of important California residents. These biographies are linked together by several recurrent themes. It is these themes that provide the thesis (theses?) of the book.

The themes are: The dark side of the optomism which characterizes the "California" personality; the harsh conflict in early times which affected the development of a Californian "civilisation" and the melding of cultures (Mexican and Californian, Northern and Southern) that produced Californian culture.

Starr focuses more on cultural rather then economic or political figures. Starr also shows a fondness for somewhat Freudian explanations for behavior (repressive parents, absent parents, neglectful parents). Given the age of the book (1975) it's hard to quibble with the inclusion of a perspective tilted towards psychological explanation.

On the whole it was a worthwhile read, and not too dense either. Recommended for those interested in the history of California and it's culture.

Wonderful Book!!!.......2002-11-16

Kevin Starr has written a fantastic book. In Americans and the California Dream the reader is introduced to the giants of the age--Herbert Hoover, Leland Stanford, David Star Jordan, John Muir, John C. Fremont, etc. I also loved the fact that he included the lessor known personalities as well. Mr. Star clearly relates the truth behind all the myth and romance with regards to the Gold Rush. While Bret Harte is thorougly debunked, Starr acknowledges that the Gold Rush continues to hold the lure and romance that it always possessed. Anyone who wishes to be introduced to the wonderful history of California must read this. I will immediately purchase the second book of the series.

highly recommended.......2002-07-09

There are two good places to start if you want to know the history of California: the work of Carey McWilliams and this book. Starr really did his homework, and the range of detail is amazing. Like McWilliams, he knows how to tell a story, and he usually has the back-stage lore on whatever public events he describes in his lucid and very readable prose. That a fact or two occasionally get out of place (the San Diego Mission was not founded by Father Altimiri but by Junipero Serra; and San Antonio de Padua is actually in Monterey County) does not diminish the power or scope of this worthy book.

Great introduction to the meaning of California.......2002-04-02

Having lived in CA since I was 15 and not being able to imagine living somewhere else, I thought this volume is a must-read for all Californians, whether born here or "naturalized". Being specifically a San Francisco resident, this book shed more light on the history of this city's beginning and "teenage years" than any other source I have come across. Here you will not just read facts about people like Jack London, Frank Norris, John Muir, John C. Fremont and Richard Henry Dana. You will learn what they contributed to the idea of California and their influence on what this state has turned out to be, for good or bad. You will also learn of lesser-known figures such as Thomas Starr King, Thomas Jordan, Isidore Duncan all of whom were immensely powerful figures in their day, but hardly known today by the average Californian. The writing got a little ploddy at the end for me. Maybe I was just tired. Until I got to the last two chapters, I would have given it a 5 score, mostly on the criteria of how much I learned from it. I look forward to reading the next few volumes.

Americans and the California Dream 1850-1915

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Americans and the California Dream 1850-1915
Kevinoxford Uni Starr
Manufacturer: Oxford at Clarendon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OV0QYU

Average customer rating:

Americans and the California Dream 1850-1915
Kevin Starr
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OK4HEQ

Average customer rating:

Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915
Kevin Starr
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OBDERG

Average customer rating:

Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915
Kevin Starr
Manufacturer: Oxford Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000L3XUXU

Customer Reviews:

Puzzles with a different slant.......2006-02-22

This is a real gem of a puzzle book.My copy was published by Sterling in 1991.When you find a puzzle book published by Sterling,you get the best in paper,printing,color and overall super construction; that will entertain many and stand up to a lot of use.
Basically ,this book covers that highly successful TV show,Concentration, that ran on NBC for fourteen and a half year,ended on March 23,1973,after 3,796 shows.It returned again in September 1973 for five more years under a new name Classic Concentration.To anyone who remembers the show,this book will bring back many memories,particularly with its coverage and pictures of the people who did the show. In many ways this show was the Jeprody of the 60's and the 70's.
The puzzles on the show were an old type of puzzle that have been around for years.The puzzles are often called picture puzzles or by a more 'proper' name Rebus Puzzles.This type of puzzle became very popular at the beginning of the 20th. Century and one of the favorites of Sam Loyd,the world's most famous pozzle master at the time.See my review of one of his books on these puzzles,dated October 30,2005.
These puzzles are like others that become popular with a wide audience because it takes only a few minutes to learn the rules and how to go about solving.It's amazing how quickly some people develop a knack for solving them.
Included in the book are 152 puzzles from the shows over the years. When you finish the puzzles,put the book away for a while,then go to the answers at the back and see if you can come up with the pictures to represent the solution.
For example,what pictures,letters,numbers,etc.,would you use to show:
Borrow from Peter to pay Paul
or
Forget-me-not
or
Adding insult to injury

Overall,a book that will please anyone who loves puzzles and/or remembers that hit game show Concentration.

Classic Concentration : The Game, the Show, the Puzzles

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Classic Concentration : The Game, the Show, the Puzzles
Steve; Goodson, Mark (introduction) Ryan
Manufacturer: Sterling Publishing Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GSKHDG

PIPEs: A Guide to Private Investments in Public Equity: Revised and Updated Edition
Average customer rating:

Well done

Best PIPE book out there

Superb Introduction to PIPES through 2002

Highly Recommended!

Essential reading material!

PIPEs: A Guide to Private Investments in Public Equity: Revised and Updated Edition

Manufacturer: Bloomberg Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Deal Terms - The Finer Points of Venture Capital Deal Structures, Valuations, Term Sheets, Stock Options and Getting VC Deals Done (Inside the Minds)

Beyond the J Curve: Managing a Portfolio of Venture Capital and Private Equity Funds (The Wiley Finance Series)

ASIN: 1576601943
Release Date: 2005-11-21

Book Description

In PIPE transactions, public compoanies issue stock and bonds directly, and often discreetly, to large institutional investors, rather than raising capiltal in the stock and bond markets. This has become an attractive financing alternative for companies seeking capital and investors seekiing high returns and the number of deals surges each year. PIPEs details how these deals are done, for what reasons, and with what caveats.

Customer Reviews:

Well done.......2007-01-20

This book is very informative and presents a solid view into the private placement world. The only reason not to give this book 5 stars is that some of the material was redundant.

Best PIPE book out there.......2005-04-22

The most informative book about Private Investments in Public Equity out there. In particular, Richard Gormley's chapter on the emergence of the PIPEs market is brilliant. Gormley's knowledgeable discussion of the market, structure and dynamics of PIPEs is both informative and practical, and leaves the reader with a good understanding of this important, developing financing alternative.

Superb Introduction to PIPES through 2002.......2004-06-21

Seldom have I read as informative and as easy to understand a book as this one on a little understood area of private finance. PIPEs (Private Investments in Public Equity) mainly appear in the business press when something goes spectacularly wrong, so they have had a spotty reputation. With a weak stock market since 1999, it?s been harder to make money on PIPEs as an investor. But PIPEs have been even more important to those smaller companies which need equity financing before they can do a public offering. So PIPEs are here to stay, and this book is a superb way to begin your introduction.

The book uses essays from top professionals in the field to define the different types of PIPEs; measure the history of PIPEs; describe the perspectives of issuers, lawyers, bankers, accountants and investors; outline the legal issues involved; show examples through term sheets, case histories and due diligence examples; and describe probable future develops in the field. If the book has a weakness, it is that the essays have some repetition in them . . . but that's essential to be sure that the terms being used are understood clearly by the reader.

This book will be essential reading for CFOs, treasurers, hedge fund managers, venture capitalists, bankers, lawyers, accountants, consultants, scholars and finance students.

I thought that the material in Part Three was the strongest in the book. You will probably understand the subject better if you skip to Part Three after reading the overview by Richard E. Gormley and David W Stadinksi from SG Cowen. Then go back to the second essay by E. Kurt Kim of PrivateRaise and follow through to the end of Part Two. If you don't need to understand the legal background, you can skip Part Two.

Anyone who wants to learn how to do better due diligence in any area of finance can learn a lot from the fine essay by Stewart R. Flink of Crestview Capital Funds, "Due Diligence: Caveat Emptor Squared."

I was particularly pleased to see that the essays generously point out all of the ways that these deals can be misstructured, and how you can make a mistake as an investor. Hopefully, the track record of future PIPEs deals will improve as a result.

Highly Recommended!.......2004-05-02

This is an excellent and comprehensive introduction to PIPEs. The acronym stands for Private Investment in Public Equity, and this includes not only common stock but warrants and other permutations of equity. Companies often issue PIPEs when they need capital but when market conditions make it imprudent to raise funds through a public offering. Most PIPEs investors are sophisticated institutions, and hedge funds are probably the most active participants in the market. PIPEs are a high-risk investment with abundant legal, market, regulatory and other complexities. This book neither attempts to sell PIPEs nor to discourage people from buying them. While somewhat repetitive, it is reasonably objective and reasonably thorough. We strongly recommend it to professional investors.

Essential reading material!.......2004-04-28

As a layman in the world of finance I found this particular book to be extremely helpful in explaining PIPEs in overview as well as the finer points of a PIPE transaction. I highly recommend this material to anyone who would like to learn how a PIPE works.

Shades of Gray: Memoirs of a Prussian Saint on the Eastern Front
Average customer rating:

Don't waste your money

Open your eyes to a different view of events

People should be baptized

MORMON PROPAGANDA

Response to Review

Shades of Gray: Memoirs of a Prussian Saint on the Eastern Front

Manufacturer: BookSurge Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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Pawn of War

ASIN: 0974015822
Release Date: 2004-08-02

Product Description

This book is the memoirs of a German caught up in the events of World War II. As an artillery spotter on the Eastern Front, Art Naujoks survived Stalingrad, and the horrors of being trapped behind enemy lines. As a Mormon, he was subject to ridicule and contempt from the German public. But when it came time to serve his country, right or wrong, Art stepped up to do his duty. In this remarkable memoir, Art Naujoks details his battlefield engagements, injuries, and his tremendous will to live through the nightmare of the Eastern Front.

Customer Reviews:

Don't waste your money.......2007-08-01

This book is worthless as a history of the battles of the eastern front. There is no real descriptions of what the author experienced as a soldier. The book only talks about his retreating from the front. I can't believe this book has such a high rating.

Open your eyes to a different view of events.......2007-05-09

This book should make you question sterotypes about the German physche at the time of World War II. It's way too easy to judge the past using the values of the present. This book provides a different view of history, in that it tells the story of a poignant period of history through the eyes of someone who was there, and wasn't on the side of the victor. Arthur Naujoks is clearly not so different to you and I and his story forces you to think about what you might have done had you been born into that place and time. Very moving. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

People should be baptized.......2007-04-11

People who are enthusiastic about the dogs of war should spend time in the kennel. This work of non-fiction, while not preachy or sententious, opens the gate to the kennel wherein the dogs of war are savagely tearing each other to bits. It is not a judgement or a sermon. It is, rather, an insight into reality--sans drums and flags and glory (presumptive).

Just blood and guts (spilled) and pain and misery and, oh yes, hunger and lice. And lest we forget, stupidity of the IIC (Idiots In Charge). There are always, it seems, at all times in all climes, Idiots in Charge, at the higher or highest levels.

Maybe, at most times, in most climes, a prerequisite for being in charge is idiocy. And a heartfelt disregard for those who bleed.

MORMON PROPAGANDA.......2007-01-20

I have relatives and friends who were on both sides of WWII - including
a real East Prussian veteran in New York state - but this book has to be unique in a quirky sort of way. Mormonism has acquired the numbers to be
(to some degree) acceptable in the US, but in Europe it is still regarded
as a non-Christian cult (perhaps anti-Christian is a better term, since
the founder, Joseph Smith, regarded the Christian denominations around him as an "abomination"). So I feel for the author. He got suckered twice -once by the Nazis and once by American "missionaries."
Those who are interested in this new approach to proselytization may want to see the movie, Saints and Soldiers, which depicts the superior
spirituality of the Mormons in a western front setting.

Response to Review.......2006-08-09

Mill Creek Press is a micro-publisher that publishes books manufactured by BookSurge, an Amazon.com company. Recently, BookSurge has been undergoing a move to a new location in Charleston, SC. The move was necessary to cope with the explosive growth of BookSurge in the last two years. Occasionally, during this move, a POD book as been shipped that didn't meet BookSurge's normal quality control standards. Please be patient, and if you do happen to get a book with pages falling out, kindly return it to BookSurge for a replacement. The new address will be available on the BookSurge website shortly (www.booksurge.com), if it is not already posted. Thank you for your cooperation and patience during this move. Mill Creek Press

Focus on humanity: A century of photography : archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross
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Focus on humanity: A century of photography : archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross
Nicolas Bouvier
Manufacturer: Skira
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 2605003094

Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society
Average customer rating:

Toward Freedom

A wonderful book, a great education!

succinct, informative, readable, humorous

A Homerun

Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society
Robert Higgs
Manufacturer: Independent Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Speaking of Liberty

ASIN: 0945999968

Book Description

What is fundamentally wrong with government today? In "Against Leviathan", economist and historian Robert Higgs offers an unflinching critical analysis of government power.

This book combines an economist's analytical scrutiny, an historian's respect for the facts, and a refusal to accept the standard excuses and cruelties of government officialdom. Topics include such programs as Social Security, the paternalism of the FDA and the War on Drugs, the nature of political leadership, civil liberties and the conduct of the national surveillance state, and governmental responses to a continuing stream of "crises," including domestic economic busts and foreign wars both hot and cold.

"Against Leviathan" is a thorough and penetrating critique, and a significant contribution in this current time of crisis and unchecked expansion of government power.

Customer Reviews:

Toward Freedom.......2006-05-13

When Robert Higgs is attacking big government of the Hobbesian kind - i.e. "Leviathan", he is brilliant while also promoting the blessings of a free economy. "Against Leviathan" is a collection of 40 essays and reviews save one that were previously published in various journals, especially the Independent Institute's "Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy" that is edited by Robert Higgs. The 40 pieces are grouped under seven topics: Welfare Statism, Our Glorious Leaders, Despotism, Soft and Hard, Economic Disgraces, The Political Economy of Crisis, Retreat of the State?, and Review of the Troops. The gist is that "few people in the United States today really give a damn about living as free men and women".

Despite Junior Bush being selected as President by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 and Junior Bush next stealing votes in Ohio through corruption and cheating in 2004 to win that state's electoral votes and subsequently the national election, Higgs believes that Americans have free and honest elections: "Citizens in a democracy can always `throw the rascals out' at the next election". Ask a Libertarian or a Green about ballot access laws.

Higgs blames the American voter for the Demo-publican monopoly in party politics: "Here in the United States we have been flinging rascals hither and yon for more than two centuries". Yet during the last election in 2004, this reviewer asked all of his sociology of law students at a very expensive private college in Ohio to name the 4 candidates for President to appear on the Ohio ballot - they could name only 2! That's a score of 50% - not a passing score. They only knew Bush and Kerry, they could not name Badnarik or Peroutka. Higgs does not see the covert struggles by Demopublican statists and their corporatist friends to maintain control of their monopoly, so he blames the U.S. voter! Having said that, however, Higgs does see the end result: "two revolving factions of a one-party state".

Higgs does a good job of lambasting government and presidents, but pauses when he mentions Grover Cleveland who Higgs says "may have been the best of them all". Cleveland, former mayor of Buffalo and later governor of New York, built his anti-big government reputation by battling corruption and graft. Yet after Cleveland was elected President, his hostility towards the spoils system never translated into reforms. In fact, he nearly doubled the number of civil servants during his term of office and a majority of them represented his party of Democrats. Cleveland did veto a precedent-setting number of bills because they sought to enrich an elitist few at the expense of the general population. But then his increasing appetite for bigger government led him to create the Interstate Commerce Commission. Near the end of his term as President, Cleveland began to be viewed as a mercantilist, or British free trader, which was different from an American free enterpriser. And although the voters reelected Cleveland by a vote of 5,538,000 to 5,447,000, the Electoral College chose Harrison 233 to 168. But as we have already seen, Higgs blames the U.S. voter.

After four years of Harrison, the voters managed to outmuscle the Electoral College and reelect Cleveland to an ill-fated second term beginning with the Depression of 1893. He let the British drain American gold reserves, thereby establishing the Gold versus Silver controversy. Cleveland showed his statist heavy hand when he terminated the Pullman Strike. And as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. militaries, he failed to control his marines who deposed the Queen of Hawaii and took liberties with her daughters. In short, Cleveland was good at talking the talk but less able to walk the walk. Calvin Coolidge would have been a better choice because he slept more than the others and was awake less time to do statist damage, although his handling of the Boston Police Strike was abominable.

In short, Higgs does a thorough job of railing against Big Government, collectivism, and welfarism. But by ignoring the creation of the corporation by the State and its resulting status as offspring of the state - thereby just as inefficient and bureaucratic as its parent, Higgs is telling only half the story. Leviathan is government AND its corporations. In a free market, there are no corporations; corporations are creations of the state - they are "artificial persons" that are granted Constitutional rights by its parent. This is a problem I hope Higgs will address one day soon.

A wonderful book, a great education!.......2005-12-21

"I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant."

~ H. L. Mencken (Living Philosophies, 1931)

H. L. Mencken would have delighted in Robert Higgs's crisp and razor-sharp assessment of America's political evolution, Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society. The American body politic in the early 21st century seems somewhat inexplicable to many classical liberals, traditional conservatives, libertarians and others who appreciate the famous Marxist inquiry (Groucho, not Karl) of "Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?" Higgs, in forty concise chapters focusing on what has really happened in our historical, political and economic evolution as a Republic, ensures not only that we "know" and are no longer ignorant, but hints that Americans may also someday recognize that it is better to be free than to be a slave to the idea of the necessity of a centralized nation-state.

How did America migrate so far from the ideas of the founders, who believed government was a necessary evil to be constantly watched for signs of insincerity and encroachment? How did we change from a people who saw American presidents as presentable representatives abroad and models of moderation in all things governmental, into a people who worship activists from Wilson to Roosevelt to Nixon to Clinton and George W. Bush - each in their own way a national embarrassment abroad and utterly Bacchanalian in all things related to the state?

Higgs explains why this is so, by showing us the historical facts, the rich and widely available evidence of a growing and ravenous state, addicted to an all-it-can-eat diet of American national wealth, productivity and citizens, and the actions of the three prolific cooks in the kitchen - the judiciary, the legislature, and the executive. Whether the cooks are just doing their jobs, or are actually co-dependent with the chief customer and its insatiability, will be a question answered in one way by modern Republicans and Democrats, and another by the rest of the country. That the state has eaten extremely well in the last century will be denied by neither group.

In a particularly helpful way, Higgs explains how our Constitution exists in three realities - the literal paper document, the body of judicial evaluation and rulings accumulated over decades about what it meant to say, and the most important reality - Charles Beard's idea of a living Constitution, "...what living men and women think it is, recognize as such, carry into action, and obey." In this last incarnation we find hope that it really can be the citizens in a republic who govern. Sadly, the hope Higgs offers in Against Leviathan must be gleaned along the model of the Straussians through the esoteric approach, using a kind of anarcho-libertarian inspired gnosis.

For those of us who have apprehended American history from television and public school texts, Against Leviathan explains political actions beginning the early 20th century in a way that makes real sense and is historically accurate. Specifically, Higgs analyzes various mythologies against econometric data not available or ignored when these story-lines were initially put forth. In particular the idea that World War II got us out of the depression, something I grew up believing without question, is firmly debunked on the basis of hard cold fact. As the irreverent Mencken and Jesus of Nazareth both understood, knowing the truth is remarkably liberating.

The past prepares the way for the future, and it cannot be otherwise. Woodrow Wilson, with a friendly legislature and judiciary, transformed his own electoral pledge to "keep us out of the war" into the classic tease practiced by all centralized states, where "no means yes." The federal government did not go from outlays of less than 2% of the gross national product in 1914 to the modern level of well over 20% without creative approaches towards confiscation and the elimination of citizen resistance, without a "crisis constitution" taking precedence over a "normal constitution." The massive conscription called by Wilson worked hand in hand with the Espionage Act of 1917, and its notorious Sedition Act amendment, to deliver bodies to the state while silencing complaints. Wilson's dedicated work paved the way legally and intellectually for the New Deal, in both spirit and detail of the governmental excesses, and further paved the way for an American command economy between 1941 and the end of World War II. This militarized society and emerging centralized state led, in turn, predictably and irreversibly into the quasi-corporatist government we both fostered and endured as Americans throughout the Cold War. Today we witness an even more perfect progeny, the never-ending War on Terror.

After their passage and implementation, the 1917 Espionage Act and the 1918 Sedition Act were challenged in the courts as violating the first amendment, among other things. Both were subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court, although they were repealed in 1921, several years after WWI ended. Higgs points out that the Supreme Court has upheld most of emergency powers assumed by the state in post-hoc reviews, and he explains why in a way that is both disturbing and depressing. In part, reversing things like Roosevelt's confiscation of privately held gold stock and invalidation of all public and private contractual language mentioning gold as a form of payment would have not only embarrassed the federal government, but completely shattered its finances, its authority and its credibility. In other words, had the Supreme Court acted to preserve the amendments to the Constitution that once protected life, liberty, and property, it would have brought down the government completely and chaotically. That several principled and stubborn justices at times came close to doing just that is heartwarming.

Robert Higgs covers a lot of ground in this comprehensive book. A relaxed reading is warranted by all Americans, whether they come to the book embracing the idea an activist state and feeling it is worth the cost, or loathing it as a moral and financial abomination. My favorite sections are those that address the political economy of the Leviathan; Higgs educates, entertains and enrages all at once. But there are at least three topics that are blazingly important to all of us as we consider present day-to-day challenges in our lives and for our families. In this election year, Americans are concerned about health care, crime and national security, and Against Leviathan enlightens on the state's interest in and influence on all three issues.

The Food and Drug Administration seems a benign example of the Leviathan holding our individual interests foremost. Yet Higgs clearly shows how the FDA not only inhibits and warps scientific research and consumer choice, but is killing people daily with crimes of both commission and omission. Higgs carefully analyzes, with the help of FDA scientists and administrators themselves, the risk analysis conducted prior to every decision of the FDA, decisions that seem to place the needs of politicians and lobbyists as well as scientists and pharmaceutical CEOs over those of actual people who need to purchase drugs and get complete information about their health and their choices. This chapter is entitled in part "A Billy Club Is Not a Substitute for Eyeglasses" indicating that the FDA's law enforcement agenda has superceded its better health agenda. Frankly, after reading this chapter it is not clear to me that the FDA would understand the metaphor, after decades of steeping in its own brand of moral superiority and bureaucratic infallibility.

In terms of crime and keeping Americans safe, Higgs relates the rise in public security spending with a threefold rise in private security employment and an astronomical rise in the incarceration rate of Americans and prison construction. Clearly, spending more for public safety from crime isn't working out as planned, although the prison industry emerges as one of the new micro-corporatist entities that provide depth and character to American-style corporatism. Higgs points out that while the private sector has rushed to fill the public safety void left by government policing, government spending in this area grows, unabated by a lack of effectiveness. In a discussion of the military industrial congressional complex elsewhere, Higgs points out how "no failure goes unrewarded" and discusses how industries affixed to various federal teats actually define government requirements instead of responding to them. It appears this condition extends beyond the MICC and into domestic law enforcement and public safety.

In terms of national security, the Leviathan on steroids we have witnessed in our crisis constitution's one thousand days since 9-11 tells its own story. Higgs, in defining the nature of government growth and the state's natural-born tendency to infringe upon individual rights of speech, action and property, takes a bit of the mystery out of the Patriot Acts, the Department of Homeland Security, and a bloated federal budget that unguently merges the military state with the police state to make everyone feel better. It was all so predictable, and a unique value of Against Leviathan is its clarification and analysis of how and why government grows, not just that it does.

A weakness in the book may be that while its title suggests we could have a foothold against our Leviathan government, the contents are not as optimistic. Is the black market and a growth in contempt for law a means of rebellion against state controls and restrictions? Sort of, Higgs says, but not really, as these two are mutually dependent. The super-productive peasant gardens in vast barren state collectives in the old Soviet Union worked well in part because the state run collectives were owned by everyone, meaning owned by no one. Thus collective resources of time, effort and supplies were free to be used on individual plots. The mystery was symbiosis. Once the artificial resource flow made possible by collectives was eliminated, the super-productive peasant gardens were likewise changed irrevocably, and we no longer hear of them. What about incremental change? Higgs points out that the Third Way is more of the same, succumbing to the false god of central planning even while lamenting it. Perhaps a major crisis so massive the state would be unable to surmount it could crash the system and relieve us from the Leviathan. Even this is viewed as unlikely, because of the remarkable stability of state interests netted with other interests, whether business or values based. America quasi-corporatism is not fascism, because each industry is not a single actor able to negotiate wholly with the state, or to completely act with the state to pursue this aim or that. Our corporatism is far more fluid and multifaceted, but the Leviathan's very widespread usefulness to all important political actors and factions makes it remarkably difficult to unseat it or even put it in a lurch. Only the individual is left out of the Leviathan equation, and most of us don't recognize that crucial reality.

We have been acculturated and miseducated to accept patronizing massive central power and call it a Republic. The benevolence, magnificence and necessity of the nation-state has been preached every day from Washington for the past one hundred years. Robert Higgs aims to correct this dangerous circumstance, and baptize us all with truth. He has succeeded in Against Leviathan. One only wishes that Higgs' next book will be entitled "Leaving Leviathan: The End of the Affair."

October 20, 2004

succinct, informative, readable, humorous.......2005-09-11

I highly recommend this book to veterans and newcomers to Liberty. I myself will definitely pass this book around to my friends and relatives.

The author has a very unique and humorous voice, and the writing overall is very clear and concise. It's an odd thing to say, but this book has the most entertaining and informative introduction I've ever read in a book--and I read many!

Buy it, read it, and spank it.

A Homerun.......2004-10-06

A very readable collection of essays and assorted writings that are an excellent companion to any of James Bovards works especially "Lost Rights".

He explodes myths in a way that exposes the corrupt foundation of big government. Nothing from the Wefare state to the FDA, the Drug War and overall regulation escapes Higgs' scrutiny.

There is something here for everyon and I plan to pass my copy to as many people as possible including my daughters college friends as an antidote to their years of being brainwashed.
If you've veer wondered whether all these big expensive and liberty-destroying federal programs are worth it or can ever work, Higgs will certainly cure you of any doubts.

The chapter of the FDA is alone worth the price of the book as many of my friends all use the FDA as the one thing that the federal government does right and we cannot live without. Higgs exposes that for the sad joke that it is. In reality the FDA had killed many more people than they've ever saved. Despite years of testing and hundreds of millions od dollars prescription drugs still kill thousands ( Voixx was approved by the FDA then recently pulled ) at the same time tens of thousands are dying while potential life saving drugs are denied patients by the FDA rules - all in the name of safety!

The best thing about this book is that Higgs exposes the underlying issues without his own poitical axe to grind, and he is willing to give credit where credit is due. Overall his attack is relentless and his arguments very convincing. Even the most rabid Demo-publican will not be able to factually dispute anything presented here. Like Bovards works, this book is meticulously researched.

Read this and it will become intuitively obvious to the most casual observer the futility of government action. Think of this book as a bull$h** vaccine. After digesting this work any reader will be more likely to pick out and filter the BS coming from DC and their media lapdogs.

Book Description

Ecoviolence explores links between environmental scarcities of key renewable resources-such as cropland, fresh water, and forests-and violent rebellions, insurgencies, and ethnic clashes in developing countries. Detailed contemporary studies of civil violence in Chiapas, Gaza, South Africa, Pakistan, and Rwanda show how environmental scarcity has played a limited to significant role in causing social instability in each of these contexts. Visit our website for sample chapters!

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