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Title: Fire in the Valley
Subtitle: The Birth and Death of the Personal Computer
Author: Michael Swaine, Paul Freiberger
Narrator: Don Azevedo
Format: Unabridged
Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
Language: English
Release date: 05-10-17
Publisher: Pragmatic Programmer
Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 16 votes
Genres: Science & Technology, Technology
Publisher's Summary:
In the 1970s, while their contemporaries were protesting the computer as a tool of dehumanization and oppression, a motley collection of college dropouts, hippies, and electronics fanatics were engaged in something much more subversive. Obsessed with the idea of getting computer power into their own hands, they launched from their garages a hobbyist movement that grew into an industry, and ultimately a social and technological revolution. What they did was invent the personal computer: not just a new device, but a watershed in the relationship between man and machine. This is their story.
Fire in the Valley is the definitive history of the personal computer, drawn from interviews with the people who made it happen, written by two veteran computer writers who were there from the start. Working at InfoWorld in the early 1980s, Swaine and Freiberger daily rubbed elbows with people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates when they were creating the personal computer revolution.
A rich story of colorful individuals, Fire in the Valley profiles these unlikely revolutionaries and entrepreneurs, such as Ed Roberts of MITS, Lee Felsenstein at Processor Technology, and Jack Tramiel of Commodore, as well as Jobs and Gates in all the innocence of their formative years.
This completely revised and expanded third edition brings the story to its completion, chronicling the end of the personal computer revolution and the beginning of the post-PC era. It covers the departure from the stage of major players with the deaths of Steve Jobs and Douglas Engelbart and the retirements of Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer; the shift away from the PC to the cloud and portable devices; and what the end of the PC era means for issues such as personal freedom and power, and open source versus proprietary software.
Members Reviews:
A Well-Researched Read About Computers
After reading the book, I feel like I have completed a college course I've long wanted to take. I appreciate the names, the general history, the telling the technical story of the development of the smart-machine itself, the demonstration in the telling of how to screw up a business and how not to screw it up--really, I appreciate all the information this book has given me. It must have taken forever to write. What an incredible effort. You definitely get your money's worth!
Great book
This is a very good book to read. Anyone who wants to understand how the personal computer came about should read this book.
Five Stars
This is a classic. I often return to it and read random sections.
Five Stars
Great book!
Easy and enjoyable read of the history of the birth, development and revolution of the PC
In Fire in the Valley: The Birth and Death of the Personal Computer, authors Michael Swaine and Paul Freiberger provide a thoroughly enjoyable read of the history and development of the PC.
As timing would have it, Michael Swain was editor of Dr. Dobb's Journal, which this week announced it would be ceasing publication in 2015 after nearly 40 years in print. The valley in the title is Silicon Valley, where both authors worked at InfoWorld during the 1980s, and their knowledge of the events comes from being there with the key players. Their vantage point provides a unique perspective to the story.
This is the third edition of the book; with the first two editions coming out in 1984 and 2000.
