This is kind of two books.

The first half is basically the post-WWII history of computers, full of colourful characters and rich (if too brief) stories. It reads like an abridged version of Isaacson’s The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution – there are even several sections which could make compelling standalone books (Milt Greenberg and GCA sounds like HBO material, TBH). I’ve read a lot of books that cover this, and this was still fun and informative.

The second half is more of a geopolitical history of the last 20-ish years, the rise of Taiwan and China, and the effects of globalization on the computer hardware industry. It focuses much more on corporations, rather than their leaders (which makes sense, given the complexities of things). It makes a clear case about why Western governments are anxious about China and Huawei, how supply chains got so complex and fragile, and how high the stakes are in the present day.

At the end is a clear-eyed assessment of the risks the industry (and world) faces today, not just geopolitically but from accidents and natural disasters, and a look at how these risks are (painfully slowly) being mitigated.

It’s a terrific book. I wish it was longer. The chapters are short and there’s a lot of whitespace in here – it could easily have had another 150 pages, and benefitted from it.