Seeing Silicon Valley

Life Inside a Fraying America

Mary Beth Meehan, Fred Turner, Mary Beth Meehan

$41.95

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

University of Chicago Press
12 May 2021

Photographic reportage; Homelessness; Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies; Ethical & social aspects of computing

Acclaimed photographer Mary Beth Meehan and Silicon Valley culture expert Fred Turner join forces to give us an unseen view of the heart of the tech world.

It’s hard to imagine a place more central to American mythology today than Silicon Valley. To outsiders, the region glitters with the promise of extraordinary wealth and innovation. But behind this image lies another Silicon Valley, one segregated by race, class, and nationality in complex and contradictory ways. Its beautiful landscape lies atop underground streams of pollutants left behind by decades of technological innovation, and while its billionaires live in compounds, surrounded by redwood trees and security fences, its service workers live in their cars.

With arresting photography and intimate stories, Seeing Silicon Valley makes this hidden world visible. Instead of young entrepreneurs striving for efficiency in minimalist corporate campuses, we see portraits of struggle—families displaced by an impossible real estate market, workers striving for a living wage, and communities harmed by environmental degradation. If the fate of Silicon Valley is the fate of America—as so many of its boosters claim—then this book gives us an unvarnished look into the future.

By: Mary Beth Meehan, Fred Turner
By (photographer): Mary Beth Meehan
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 178mm, Width: 254mm,
ISBN: 9780226786483
ISBN 10: 022678648X
Pages: 112
Publication Date: 12 May 2021
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

The Valley on the Hill Fred Turner Photographs and Stories Mary Beth Meehan Cristobal Ravi and Gouthami Victor Warren Justyna Teresa Mary Diane Abraham and Brenda Ariana and Elijah Mark Imelda Richard Leslie Geraldine Jolea Melissa and Steve Jon Gee and Virginia Branton and Shirley Konstance Aurora Erfan Ted Elisa and Family Elizabeth Afterword Acknowledgments

Mary Beth Meehan is a photographer known for her large-scale, community-based portraiture centered around questions of representation, visibility, and social equity in the United States. She lives in New England. Fred Turner is Harry and Norman Chandler Professor of Communication at Stanford University. He is the author several books, including From Counterculture to Cyberculture, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Reviews for Seeing Silicon Valley: Life Inside a Fraying America

For more than seven decades, business leaders, politicians, and would-be entrepreneurs have tried to unravel the secrets of Silicon Valley. In a little more than one hundred powerful, haunting pages, Meehan and Turner have captured a side of the Valley rarely seen: the deeply inequitable landscape of contingent and disproportionately foreign-born labor that makes its high-tech magic possible. Humane, insightful, and deeply compelling, this book tells the story of Silicon Valley in a completely new and utterly magnetic way. --Margaret O'Mara, author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America It is a Silicon Valley rarely described and never shown that photographer Mary Beth Meehan sought to document. . . . Without descending into pathos, she reveals the striking contrasts between the world of start-ups and that in which their employees live. . . . But underneath, Meehan also depicts another, more subtle dissonance--between the way Silicon Valley sees itself, and the way it really is. -- Le Monde Meehan's photographs provide a compelling cross section of peoples and places in the Valley, featuring hidden and untold stories. The photographs are excellent, the selection is clever and balanced, and the accompanying texts are well-written and engaging. --Phillip Prodger, Yale University