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Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition and Still Can't Get a Date
 
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Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition and Still Can't Get a Date (Paperback)

by Robert X. Cringely (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; 2nd Revised edition edition (4 April 1996)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140258264
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140258264
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 243,303 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  • See Complete Table of Contents

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Robert X. Cringely manages to capture the contradictions and everyday insanity of computer industry empire building, while at the same time chipping away sardonically at the PR campaigns that have built up some very common business people into the household gods of geekdom. Despite some chuckles at the expense of all things nerdy, white and male in the computer industry, Cringely somehow manages to balance the humour with a genuine appreciation of both the technical and strategic accomplishments of these industry luminaries. Whether you're a hard-boiled Silicon Valley marketing exec fishing for an IPO or just a plain old reader with an interest in business history and anecdotal storytelling, there's something to enjoy here.

In his new conclusion, Cringely looks at the likely near-future of the PC industry, arguing that most of the major companies are facing a need to dramatically reformulate their mission in the light of engineering developments already in the works. He offers a new paradigm for the development of the industry as it moves from its early "start up" phase into a more mature, more competitive era. --Jake Bond

Product Description
This work looks at the business of computing in the US, as computer science, as a business, and as a collection of extraordinary and eccentric characters. After automobiles, energy production, and illegal drugs, personal computers are one of the largest manufacturing industries in the world, and one of the great success stories for American business. This book is linked to a Channel 4 television series entitled "The Triumph of the Nerds".

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Customer Reviews

25 Reviews
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3 star:
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2 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Compulsory (for Open University T171), but a good read, 3 Feb 2000
By A Customer
This book is a set text for OU T171, so I had to get it. But I really enjoyed it... the style was easy to read (particularly compared to the second set text)... you can tell it is written by a journalist, but at least they are supposed to be able to write. I read this one like a novel from cover to cover in one weekend. The author is easier on Bill Gates than other books I know, but overall it seemed quite a well researched history of PCs (as compared to most books which cover the history of computers). I'd recommend it - and fellow students can breathe a sigh of relief!
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Cringley1 - Gates0 (but to be continued i'm sure), 16 Jun 2000
By A Customer
Accidental Empires gives a fairly broad outline of the development of the personal computer from the days when it was first created and no-one realy knew what it was going to be used for, up to around 1996 when Bill Gates was already up to his umpteenth million. Though the author does have an in depth knowledge of all the key characters in the world of the computer such as Steve Jobs of Apple or the nerdy Mr Gates, I do feel at times that he has a personal axe to grind with some of them. Despite this, I found the book a compelling read (the fact that I have finished the book is to some degree testiment to this) and though I have only read this book in connection with Open University course T171 I feel that it has given me a taster of a subject about which I knew little and certainly leaves the me wanting to study the subject more deeply. The author has a witty and easy to read writing style, with which he pokes a sometimes cynical and often humourous stick at a world which seems to the layperson to take itself too seriously at times.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Mad geek on mad geeks, 14 Oct 2002
By Sue Jones (London) - See all my reviews
'Accidental Empires' is a set book on the T171 Open University course, for reasons which will only become apparent once you've got past the first 31 pages of 'I God-Cringely'. The history of the empires of Apple, Microsoft and other global players is here, interspersed with Cringely's rather insistent 'style' which he got from being a scribbler on geek-rag Info-World, and living downwind of the strange herbal fumes coming out of Silicon Valley. Your reviewer read 'Accidental Empires' as a first edition back in year diddly-dot, and re-reading it for my own futile assault on T171 has rekindled the feelings of unbelief at the antics of the pioneers of personal computing, and horror at Cringely's obvious psychosis. But as a history of mass-market personal computing, say from the Apple II onwards, the book is compulsive, and informative, and needs an update, and makes you cringe, and may well get you through a third of the way thru T171. So maybe we should call it 'seminal', read the book, pass the course and go out and get a life. Advice which Mr Cringely might also benefit from.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Boys will be Boys!
Accidental Empires (later made into a great TV production called: Triumph of the Nerds) is an eye opening view of the personal computer revolution and the who made it happen from... Read more
Published 10 months ago by C. Clayton

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating history of the computing industry
I read this book after I saw the author's three-part documentary on the very same subject. Robert X. Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2003 by the_roo

4.0 out of 5 stars Opinionated, but concise
Cringeley sees no reason to allow the facts to confuse the issue. Typically he takes a page or three to make a single point in his rambling and opinionated longhand. Read more
Published on 4 Nov 2002 by C. Carlyle

3.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating but flawed
As a seasoned UK IT 'Pro' with 16 years PC and Mainframe experience, I came to this book expecting anecdotes about the movers and shakers of the PC World. Read more
Published on 19 Mar 2002 by foster@tesco.net

3.0 out of 5 stars Less trumpet blowing would have made it better.
Overall this is a very well written book which gives an inside view of the American PC industry. I would recommend anyone who is in the PC industry reads this book. Read more
Published on 12 Sep 2001 by Graham Wilkinson (info@grahamw...

5.0 out of 5 stars Triumph of the Nerds in Words
I am currently studying with the Open University and this is one of the set books we have had to read. Read more
Published on 12 Jul 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic reference
An amazing insight into the world of computing brand names and people. Very entertaining and eye opening.

Is crying out for an updated version.

Highly recommended.

Published on 20 May 2001 by Indian Bookworm

5.0 out of 5 stars A witty and realistic view on the evolution of the PC
Every now and then there comes along a book which I find I can't put down. Accedental Empires is such a book. Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2001 by icdavies@lineone.net

4.0 out of 5 stars Humourous, but substantial insight to a history of computing
I like many others read this book for the Open University Course T171 and it convinced me to take the course. Read more
Published on 20 Nov 2000

2.0 out of 5 stars Lacks detail and has too many personal opinions
I requested this book through the library of my company for the same Open University course as many other readers. I'm quite dissapointed for several reasons. Read more
Published on 16 Oct 2000

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