• Books

    "I'm out there to clean the plate."
    Richard Ben Cramer, 2005
    THE CODE: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America, by Margaret O'Mara (Penguin Press, 2019)

    The Code

    Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America

    The epic human story of how, out of a small patch of land in Northern California, high tech recreated America in its image, for good and for ill.

     

    Available at Penguin Press or Amazon.

    Pivotal Tuesdays by Margaret O'Mara

    Pivotal Tuesdays

    Four Elections That Shaped the Twentieth Century

    A story of politics, and a story of a nation and its people. Four pivotal presidential elections of the American century, and the great cultural and political transformations that surrounded them.

     

    Available at Penn Press or Amazon.

     

    Cities of Knowledge by Margaret O'Mara

    Cities of Knowledge

    Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley

    How high-tech regions came to be, what the Cold War had to do with it, and how research universities became agents of America's political and economic transformation.

     

    Available at Princeton University Press or Amazon.

  • Public writing

    "If your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon."
    Tom Stoppard, 1988
    Recent bylines:

     

    Even Busts Can be Good for Tech, The Information, February 2023

     

    Why Did We Put So Much Faith in the Crypto Whiz Kid?, The New York Times, November 2022

     

    The World Tech Made, Foreign Affairs, November/December 2022

     

    The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley, WIRED, January 2022

     

    Where Computing Might Go Next, MIT Technology Review, November 2021

     

    The New York Times (as contributing opinion writer, 2019-2021):

     

    How Will Jeff Bezos Spend His Billions Now?, February 2021

     

    Silicon Valley Isn't Over Just Because Tech Companies Are Moving Away, December 2020

     

    The Social Media Machine Will Rage On, November 2020

     

    A Brief History of the Taxpayer in Chief, October 2020

     

    The Conventions Hit Closer to Home This Year, August 2020

     

    The Last Days of the Tech Emperors?, July 2020

     

    Don't Be Fooled by Seattle's Police-Free Zone, June 2020

     

    Twitter Could End the Office as We Know It, May 2020

     

    The Coronavirus Could Rewrite the Rules for Silicon Valley, April 2020

     

    America is at War, and There's Only One Enemy, March 2020

     

    Life in Seattle, America's Coronavirus Capital, March 2020

     

    Don't Blame the Tech Bros for the Housing Crisis, November 2019

     

    The Church of Techno-Optimism, September 2019

     

    Letting the Internet Regulate Itself Was a Good Idea -- In the 1990s. July 2019

     

    Who Will Survive the Trade War?. June 2019

     

    Silicon Valley's Old Money, March 2019

     

    Lyft's IPO is Making the Same Circle of Men Rich, Again, March 2019

     

    The End of Privacy Began in the 60s, December 2018

     

    A Warning from Seattle to Amazon's HQ2, November 2018

     

    Silicon Valley Can't Escape the Business of War, October 2018

     

    Additional public writing:

    The Limits of Telecommuting, Public Books, November 2020

     

    Silicon Politics, The Communications of the ACM, December 2020

     

    Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?, AHA Perspectives, November 2020

     

    On Technology and Urban Transformation, The Metropole, July 2020

     

    Silicon Valley Can Still Beat China, Bloomberg Businessweek, July 2019

     

    How Antitrust Laws Can Save Silicon Valley, The Washington Post, July 2019

     

    The Tech Talent is Rumbling in Silicon Valley, The Los Angeles Times, December 2018

     

    Winning the Amazon Sweepstakes,The Washington Post, September 2017


    The Other Tech Bubble, The American Prospect, Winter 2016

     

    The Long Game, in The First Year Project, The Miller Center at the University of Virginia, 2016

     

    The Future of Work: The Technology Industry is Changing the Rules, Pacific Standard, October 2015


    TR and Trump: Two Very Different People, But There's This One Significant Similarity, History News Network, September 2015
     

    Don’t Try this at Home, Foreign Policy, September/October 2010

     

    Not So Fast: Some Presidents Overcome Their Midterm Slump, The Seattle Times, April 2010
     
    Welfare as We Knew It, Black Past, September 2009

     

    Amazon Joins the Parade of Tech to the Urban Core, Crosscut, December 2008

     

    We are Not the ‘Next Silicon Valley’, Crosscut, February 2008

     

    Seattle’s Transportation Malaise is Nothing Special, Crosscut, January 2008