“Silicon Valley is the only place on Earth not trying to figure out how to become Silicon Valley.” That's how Ethernet inventor and 3Com founder Bob Metcalfe put it in the late 1990s, around the time I started tracing this long, strange trip myself. It's a quest full of great moments, from...

When I set out to write a history of Silicon Valley that brought politics and policy back into the story, I had little idea of how much tech policy would be in the headlines by the time I published it. When I designed a course on the U.S. presidency a few years back, little did I realize that I'd...

There are few things better than autumn on a college campus. Leaves are turning, backpacks sharp and textbooks new, students eager, excited, and (mostly) keeping up with the reading. Along with teaching on my own beautiful campus, I'll be visiting a few more campuses--as well as other kinds of...