whatever else you say about this book there's no denying how much work has gone into researching it. its absurdly detailed and yokes together an enormous amount of ecological / economic data with biographies of individuals (though it has to be said: the emphasis falls far more on the latter than in the case of the work of its most obvious influence Mike Davis, particularly as it goes along) to render the straight line that exists from California's exterminationist, white supremacist frontier capitalism to contemporary Silicon Valley.

this is its greatest asset and its greatest liability. the book is too long, every three paragraphs should have been condensed into one. if we could spend less time finding out about how Herbert Hoover courted his wife we could have kept a lock on what he actually is; a component in a broader process. If Harris had done this he'd've gotten as close as is possible to get to the quality of Mike Davis if you're not Mike Davis.

the designation 'millenial Mike Davis' is true in another sense, the righteous force of his prose here gives way to an omnipresent twitterish sark with precocious and over-familiar colloquialisms. it's less effective and at this length, a bit obnoxious