Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age

Michael A. Hiltzik

May 2009 · Harper Collins

About this ebook

The Pulitzer Prize-winner’s classic account of the legendary research lab that gave rise to the Digital Age.

In the 1970s and ‘80s, Xerox Corporation brought together a brain-trust of engineering geniuses dubbed PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). This brilliant group created several monumental innovations that triggered a technological revolution, including the first personal computer, the laser printer, and the graphical interface (one of the main precursors of the Internet). And when these breakthroughs were rejected by the corporation, these determined inventors turned their ideas into empires that changed the world.

Based on extensive interviews with the scientists, engineers, administrators, and executives who lived the story, Dealers of Lightning details PARC’s rise from humble beginnings to a hothouse for ideas. It also shows why Xerox was never able to grasp the cutting-edge innovations PARC delivered.

Michael A. Hiltzik offers an unprecedented look at the ideas, the inventions, and the individuals that propelled Xerox PARC to the frontier of techno-history—and the corporate machinations that almost prevented it from achieving greatness.

Ratings and reviews

This is the - by far - on of the best books I have ever read about computer history. Let me say that I am no programmer and that I do not have any advanced (if none at all) technical knowledge on pc technology. This is a book that manages to perfectly recreate the atmosphere at the PARK lab, be it good at some times or bad at others. Anyone who is even slightly interested to find out how the whole PC industry started to evolve and how the PC ended up with features like the screen, the mouse, the ethernet card, the laser printer, will be completely drawn into the story. One of the best book I have read in my life.

Read the book on a recommendation of somebody who personally knew Bob Taylor. This book is well written and it tells the story of PARC very well. I'd strongly recommend it to anyone who writes software for a living. The book gave me a better understanding of how Silicone Valley operates today and how its culture began. Even after having been in the industry for a long time this book still gave me quite a few new insights.

This History of Xerox PARC will go down as one of the Classics in the History of Science & Technology. The level of detail is astounding. As a Special Projects Manager for a Simulation & Training System for the Xerox 9700 in 1982, I am finally able to glimpse the Corporate EcoSystem in the full paralyzing panorama of the time. Amen.

About the author

Michael A. Hiltzik is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Los Angeles Times. In 2004 he won a Gerald Loeb Award, the highest honor in American financial journalism. Hiltzik is the author of Dealers of Lightning: Xerox Parc and the Dawn of the Computer Age and A Death in Kenya. He lives in Southern California with his wife and two sons.