Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date (1992, 1996), is a book written by Mark Stephens under the pen name Robert X. Cringely about the founding of the personal computer industry and the history of Silicon Valley.[1]
The style of Accidental Empires is informal, and in the first chapter Cringley claims that he is not a historian but an explainer, and that "historians have a harder job because they can be faulted for what is left out; explainers like me can get away with printing only the juicy parts."[2] Notably, the book was critical of Steve Jobs and Apple, as well as Bill Gates and Microsoft.[3] The book described how companies in the technology industry were built and critiqued the public-relation campaigns that explained such narratives.[4]
The book was revised and republished in 1996, with new material added. A documentary based on the book, called Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires was aired on PBS in 1996, with Cringely as the presenter.[5][6] In November of 2011, a film based on the miniseries called Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview, was exhibited at the Landmark Theatres.[7] It included the missing footage of the interview that Jobs did with Cringely in 1995 for the PBS documentary.[8]
In February 2012, Cringely wrote on his blog that he will republish the book online, free for all to read.[9]
Release details
1991, United States, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc ISBN978-0-441-00652-6, Pub date February 1992 Hardback
1993, United States, HarperCollins ISBN978-0-88730-621-1, Pub date February 1993, Paperback
1996, United States, HarperCollins ISBN978-0-88730-855-0, Pub date October 23, 1996, Hardback
1996, United States, Penguin Books Ltd ISBN978-0-14-025826-4, Pub date April 4, 1996, Paperback
^Cringely, Robert X. (1992). Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date. p. 11.
