Harris writes -
“We have a word for idyllic towns where the youth suicide rate is three times as high as it's supposed to be…”
Hmmmmm - what rate is it “supposed to be”?
(I would think zero).

Yes the worst of capitalism is ravaging the planet and it’s species including us. But sorry, I’m not buying into your churning and spinning as Palo Alto reality - I’ve lived here to long and paid too much attention.

Hoover Institute (not even part of Stanford) is an embarrassment to many of us here with its warmongers pretending to be civilized, but that’s nothing to do with Palo Alto.

The author’s fixated on his Palo Alto hypothesis, using everything from Huey Newton, Ohlone School, but surprisingly not Elon Musks kitchen sink to shore it up.

"Three times as high as it's supposed to be" does sound awkward. Perhaps three times as high as the national average. Very sad.

Is the author's reason for writing "Palo Alto" to inform and enlighten readers to the dangers of capitalism or to reform and enlarge his share of wealth and profits from capitalism with successful book sales via the likes of the internet and Amazon and the hoped for series and movie via Netflix. All made possible by the
advances of the corrupt capitalistic likes of Stanford and Palo Alto.

[Post removed.]

“ but one would not learn from Harris' account that the majority of the city votes Democratic”

And? That means little to nothing.

Thanks, Gennady, for the review. I won’t waste my money on this book of cliches and sloppy generalizations.

One PAO online version of this review contained the following phrase:

"........ 68,000 but a synecdoche that at various times stands in for Silicon Valley, for Stanford University and for worldwide capitalism."

I was sufficiently confused by the free flow writing style of Mr. Harris. The word "synecdoche" sent me sprinting for a dictionary. This word now has disappeared from this review, but it seems to be apt use of language.

I am not sprinting to the bookstore to buy this book. Having lived in this region for about 50 years I am sufficiently awed and overburdened with our local history.

Nevertheless, I am deeply appreciative of Mr. Sheyner's ability to craft words for this review and create context of our follies and achievements. When Mr. Sheyner writes his own book, I will sprint out to get it. I am sure the book will provide fresh and exciting insights.

Write all you want about how Stanford and its relationship with SV industry is driven by unleashed capitalism. In my opinion, suggesting that local youth suicide is driven by capitalism is irresponsible, insensitive (we are talking about a local community of friends and family who knew these young adults and new the truth about the complexity of their life and tragic deaths), and unfortunately diminishes the valid points that book may make.

Perhaps the book's author didn't do enough research on Mr. Hoover?

"In 1921 one of the most devastating famines in history threatened the lives of millions of Russians as well as the continuance of Soviet rule. Responding to a plea for help from the Soviet government. the American Relief Administration (ARA) agreed to provide famine relief in the stricken areas. The ARA was a private relief organization headed by Herbert Hoover, then U.S. secretary of commerce and one of the best-known Americans of his time for his spectacular success in rescuing the population of Belgium from starvation during World War I and in feeding millions of Europeans during the Armistice."

Doesn't quite seem like the Devil imho. And of course Hoover was right about Communism. In both the Soviet and Chinese versions, intentionally killing millions of its citizens, wiping out civil society in order to achieve totalitarian control, and implementing cultural genocide against conquered peoples.

For a non-silly book on Silicon Valley's rise to pre-eminence, check out "Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128", author
AnnaLee Saxenian. Some might remember that there used to be a tech competitor for Silicon Valley dubbed "Route 128" which faded away arguably because it had no Fred Terman to promote inter-company collaboration and startup culture.

Genaddy Sheyner has gifted Palo Alto Weekly readers a masterful review of what promises to be a consequential contribution to the literature about this remarkable region. Enriched by Mr. Sheyner's long experience covering Palo Alto and Stanford affairs and written with style, the review itself should stimulate wide-spread and energetic conversations about Palo Alto's place in the world regardless of how many copies of the 720 page book eventually find a place on Palo Alto household bookshelves.

I agree with a previous poster that Gennady Sheyner wrote a very good review of this book. I just wish that his article had been identified as a review, containing as it does comments on Mr. Harris's book. Mr. Sheyner's articles usually stick to "just the facts."

We are blessed to live in a country that permits free economic exchange among people, which defines 'capitalism.'

The author admits he is a communist. We have seen how communism/socialism has worked out, with over 100 million deaths (Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc.), extreme poverty (N. Korea, Venezuela, etc ), and continued human slavery and atrocities (organ thefts and sales) even now (Uighurs in China, Falun Gong in China). Seems that the reviewer forgot to mention any of that. Why would anyone listen to a Communist?

It appears from this review that the writer overlooks aspects of history that undermine his argument. For instance, the same Palo Alto worked with developer Joe Eichler during the 1950s to develop tracts of affordable homes for young families. Eichler refused industry pressure from banks and other developers to redline neighborhoods he built in our community. With the support of many citizens he was successful realizing his dream.

The writer is very young. I am old enough and grew up elsewhere, so I remember that the kind of racism he describes was ubiquitous in the US once. Things have changed a lot across the whole country over time with each generation. We are far from finished with the very important work that needs to happen to create true equity, but to point at Palo Alto as though it was unique in this regard and did nothing to work toward change disregards big chunks of our community history--and it also discourages people who are presently motivated to work toward change.

BTW, racism is not unique to the US. It is a worldwide problem. People of all races and tribes, including people of color have tendencies toward racism. It is a human problem we each need to work on in our hearts, minds and actions. Deeply seated prejudices like this tend to change with constant education and political pressure over time. When I was very young, I remember being shocked to hear my grandmother make a disparaging remark about Jewish people. Decades later, she had changed the view of Jews she'd learned from her parents. My parents carried no prejudices against Jews. I fell in love with and married a Jewish man and raised my children Jewish. Time, constant effort over generations creates change. Perhaps being older gives me a different perspective. I am hopeful for Palo Alto and the world. Hope is what drives me to work toward change. I have seen much that is good in this community. You will too if you join with others who work toward change .

Author Malcolm Harris or Kamala Harris? Book sounds like something she, our U.S. President-in-waiting would have written. Despite the fact she was a product benefactor of the non (? ?) Capitalistic movements: Affirmative Action Era, being Willie Browns’ mistress etc.
[Portion removed.]
This Authors parallels are best defined by the staff journalist:
“But whether or not residents today like or dislike Hoover makes little difference. Palo Alto, after all, is the home of Hewlett Packard and Lockheed Martin, and when you're a Marxist hammer, every detail is a capitalist nail.”
A Perfect analogy! Do we need more communism today. If we give Stanford back to the Ohlone tribe, would they remain a tribe or incorporate diversity. Would African-americans be happier if they went back to Africa? Humans evolve through eras of change, we are not perfect. Do we discount all the good evolution for its trade-offs, life is a compromise, you don’t get everything your way, unless…maybe if you are akin to Putin’s way of thinking, or think you can change history After the fact.

The demonization of Palo Alto by this book is a little perplexing to me. There's so much good stuff around here to talk about as well. It seems like many of the topics covered in the book lack any sort of common thread. Perhaps it tries to cover too much ground by including "world" history in the title.

I knew that David Starr Jordan was a eugenicist but I've never seen him implicated so closely to Jane Stanford's poisoning. It would be interesting if any historians can provide evidence to that. Not just speculation based on motive.

By the way, it's been a long time since I have read the words "hagiographic" and "synecdoche" in any written material whatsoever. Great review!

Between 1990 and 2015 alone, 1.25 billion people around the world escaped extreme poverty—50 million per year and 138,000 every day... Tech and capitalism had a lot to do with that! Just ask China. Free markets in China were the single-most effective way in pulling millions and millions out of poverty.

What a wonderful review by Gennady Sheyner!! So well written and thought out. He clearly knows Palo Alto and is a gifted writer. I am not related to Gennady and have never met him -- so not a paid review on my part. Just really appreciate the work he put into this review.

As close as GS writes about this new book it reads like he could have teamed up w Harris as a co-author. GS clearly knows too much yet because of his position as a PA housing reporter has been able to glean a lot of anonymous PAOnlune comments over the years, added w his own knowledge about the growing corporate Fasistic direction of town is going. I am sorry GS cannot write his own researched factual story about our town’s bedding down w Stanford 7’ long or now 6’ feet under the ground. Our children are highly pressurized by the extreme of the money, AI, and out of whack citizen surveillance. As well as our youngsters witness a city turning their backs on those here, most in need of permanent, supportive, safe, equitable, affordable, quality homes and jobs. Echliers homes were built pre-fab and cheap and toxic materials. Designed to last about 40 years. Not a forever home. His money grab is not a good example. I am interested to see if Harris’s book contains any true history about Lucy Stern, Jo Duveneck, Greta Isenberg & many important women working for good, along the way who helped quell Mid-Century post WWII extreme capital here.

Excellent Review of what promises to be an interesting and possibly informative read. I've ordered a copy.

As noted above, one man has lifted more people put of poverty than Marx, Lenin, Castro, etc combined.

That man is Deng Xiaoping, who as leader of China in the 1980s steered the country away communistic control of the economy and turned the country towards rip roaring capitalism. It's unbelievable how quickly and how many of their citizens have prospered.

Does anyone besides me remember the Symbionese Liberation Army got their start in Palo Alto? According to wiki: "The SLA formed from people who met during prisoner outreach programs supported by the radical left-wing group Venceremos, active in the Palo Alto area, and the Black Cultural Association in Vacaville Prison, about 45 miles from Berkeley." What's funny is Stanford memorializes the publication that came straight outta Leland's House in the 70's. Looky here > Web Link <. Stanford has managed to shave off their beard of radicalism and become the Tesla generation in just 50 years. Now that they've apologized to Jewish people, they need to heap some apologies toward the once-thriving Venceramos tribe that co-existed with the Izod shirt crowd.

@Jerry: Read "Who Killed Jane Stanford" by Stanford professor emeritus Richard White: Web Link Richard White lays out his evidence to support his guess that David Starr Jordan was behind Jane Stanford's murder.

Let's put the blame on the excellent Professor Terman at Stanford. If he had not been there with an excellent reputation David Packard (from Pueblo, Colorado) would not have attended Stanford but would have done as he planned to attend the University of Colorado. There would never have been a Hewlett-Packard, and this book would never have been written.

@LIndaPA. Did you actually read the book? Richard White's conclusion was that David Starr Jordan was not behind Jane Stanford's murder, although he was involved in covering it up.

"Harris, a critic of the capitalist order who was active in the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in 2011, is himself a product of the Palo Alto System, having spent the second half of his childhood in the city."

Self-loathing is the worst kind.

Gennady writes from his head and his heart. This review demonstrates how a good journalist informs and stimulates his readers. I like the scope of comments steadily flowing from one book review....diving us deeper into history and making us question our local values.

From my way-back-machine: In April 1927 our country was experiencing a massive flood. Millions of home flooded. Legends of that flood persisted into the 1950s when I was a child. Herbert Hoover was in a position of power and he used that power for the common good.

Web Link

@MyFeels also known at the time as SLA. No. Hi I had no clue this began in Palo Alto. Though as a middle schooler at the north of the GGB it was quite a story and serious Bay Area stress for a Hearst daughter to be said “kidnapped” and as the main stream media wrote “[email protected] or “brainwashed” to be a rebel. This said, Oatty was a Peninsula child of Hillsborough ilk. Yet this Palo Alto connection is truly news. A good friend spent many years researching this segment of Bay Area history. Just a year ago I drove with him and my teen son through Crystal Springs as he recounted the SLA history and said kidnapping to us . As I retell here my neck hairs are raised.

@Native there's so many things the average Palo Altan doesn't know! Like the fact that our resident Stanford Troll SBK got caught being naughty looking at NFL games using a VPN. And now is likely going to have his bail revoked because the attorneys and Judge just learned what a VPN is.

I think I first heard about the Palo Alto/SLA connection through a magazine in 1974. Remember magazines? I want to say it was People magazine but that tripe didn't begin publishing until 1974. It wasn't the Stanford U newspaper, though. It was all so hazy. Riding through Hillsborough was like taking a trip to Mars. Completely alien. So when an heiress took up with a radical army, I was interested in how that could even happen. I don't believe she was kidnapped. Stanford and UC Berkeley were hotbeds of discontent. Maybe too much money makes a person want to join an armed cult! I just googled her and she actually attended Menlo College before switching to UCB. So that's something your friend can explore ... is it possible she could have met members of Venceramos while there? I would love to interview her. She's lucky she wasn't at the shootout. I bet the hair on the back of HER neck goes up when she drives down memory lane, too. Good to see your alphabet characters here!

@MyFeelz -- So what are your thoughts on the Little Brown published, Harris 720 page expose? I seriously am concerned that the local culture vultures will go after his whole being.

@Native, Academia won't be buying it, and he may generate a few book sales at a book-signing event. Globally it won't become a best seller because it's a niche story that only PA residents might be interested in. I would definitely put a copy in a time capsule. Last thought, he won't be feted here at any elite parties. But you never know. If I were him and got an invite to an event to celebrate his book I would definitely hire bodyguards!

@MyFeelz GS title might serve a more international spirit of interest for the Harris expose, as a magnifying look. Yet by critiquing the author and not the subjects content GS misses key Global and local climate impacts.I.e the unhoused are our first and near last defense in climate & economic change. Harris has brought to the published page has reaped a dire, detrimental global human cost of “What Palo Alto has bought and sold is a moral and social rot”. This expense has depleted the common soul of human existence and life on Planet Earth. “Palo Alto (aka Stanford & associated Park) like war — is not good for children and other living creatures.” And to reiterate. Where are historically important women combatting the male power breed ? The feminine power of social, racial integration & innovation. Lucy Stern, Josephine Duveneck?

One other note @MyFeelz: on the cusp of Harris’s book hitting the shelves. Stanford Research park has bought a lot of ad space on PaOnline and SFgate.com. Touting their social investment for very low income housing support. Tragic to point out that 70 units at Mayfield Place does not near supplement the military contracts seeded by such Stanford Research Park’s US global war machine bringing in billions, nor does such ads help sustain or combat climate change i’e the toxic plume floating underground and around where Palo Alto wants housing humans to go or now exists (Mayfield Place). Meanwhile key areas like the Transit Center at University has been swiped off the table for good LIH choices . So many lies and misses. Liz Kniss and others from Palo Alto Forward are quoted in support of a meager, shoddy constructed 70 units of poor house, housing — Blaming Related California the ground lease holders is a total sham for how housing gets built, run and managed.

@Me2 It’s super sad that Stanford Research park has missed a rare opportunity to support and supplement the hard working families at Mayfield Place, squished between Wells Fargo, Wilson Sosini International Law and Sandhill properties, and fronting the pollution from El Camino Real. Yes we are poor. Yet. We are extremely hardworking service job people, multi-cultural and diverse. A real testament to a truer investment into a more equitable sustainable Palo Alto. Instead we get smothered and covered over by corporate LLC owned or tax free power based greed, who cares not a hoot about our quality of life or our children trying to dig out a tiny space to thrive & grow forward on their soil. We are tossed around like the breeze that blows all the trash and gravel on ECR. Such a loss of a good, living growing life.

@Native, GS could literally just cut and paste every article he's posted here and submit it to a publisher in book form. Every chapter could say, "What Hath Palo Alto Wrought" and just add a date next to it. I wonder if he retains the copyright for all of his submissions? Seems like what PA has REALLY wrought is a centuries old tale, about an Emperor and his new clothes. The threads are fraying, the buttons are popping, and the tailors left long ago. But hey. 70 units. That's something, eh? Many moons ago I lived in an area above a toxic plume where we were reassured there was no danger to humans or wildlife. And that explains why I'm so obnoxious now. I drank, showered and cooked with water that, if you let a glass of it stand overnight, it had little globs of oil floating on top. Even after filtering it. Everybody has a toxic plume in their community, right?

@MyFeelz thanks for making my heart a itzy bit easier & breezier song, w your effacing, intell humor. I laugh w you..Yet
As much as it is appreciated & much as yr humor is needed 4 my singular ♥️ Stanford’s, PA’s “poor” house, 70 units of 100% wheelchair access ( only access 4 a wheelchair, not a human in a wheelchair or a helper pushing g a chair

Yes. 70 MP families have overhead cover, may sleep without-a leaky fabric, cardboard or polyethylene covering.

And let our City not forget ir forgive: MyGod! their (our) children are enrolled in PAUSD schools! I get that/this.

However.PAUSD is skin/a different fur. Palo Alto wealth appears to “un-partner” rather, connect 2 address head-on or solve equations, like including our youth. .

There are 2 beasts here, primordial & those humans vying 4 the same best meat — i,e. revenues from taxation. Yet, Stanford, mega land holding owner is The Premier King, who (was) tax exempt , gets everything. The 130 year old land hoarders hold all the cards., ECR PA corridor is in shambles. Stanford gets to swipe real estate off the HEWG inventory.

As rich as Stanford Research park is, with all thier commercial tea estate holdings are It’s hard to witness little kids in our Palo Alto Mayfield Place / Stanford Agreement playing ball in a parking lot or collecting fallen birds nests at Sand Hill properties or being kicked out of the City Soccer Field because our resident kids want to play catch w a baseball and not registered as a city “soccer” team player, sanctioned to kick it w a team player.

It’s difficult to see our Mayfield residents “fixing” their car in a lot w their child scootering around waiting, or trying to wash thier car e buckets of water ... waiting until maybe next Century something other comes along. It’s difficult to do laundry as a senior w two children w only a few washers. It’s difficult to witness overflowing trash, pests, and humans rummaging for leftovers.

@Whomever my typos indicate the emotional level of stress a single mamma of three 4th Generation Palo Altman youngsters enrolled at PAUSD. Yes single mamma is working six days a week, while also attempting to stay a cleft chin above being drowned by the Billionaire wealth here. WHO, yes all drive the common down to underground, And who continue to deny us a livable wage. . Ya ya ya Apple, Googly Eyes, Meta all throw out $Gazilion$ contributions 4 housing. Yet where does such land? oh where are those precious dollars landing...? I keep thinking of Dahls “Charlie and the chocolate Factory”. His family lived their life on a mattress bed. The only surface Charlie’s family had for surviving was from the a literal squeezed yet loving elderly grandparent support. It was only the Golden Ticket that woke his grandpa to rise up and out. Yet where is PA’s Grandpa. And please do not invoke Stanford or China!!!

As someone who did not grow up here in the US or in Palo Alto, and who had a microscopic glorified view of the US coming in including the idea that this was a self-made country, the book offers a historical insight into how things came about. The truth is that the systematic institutionalized decimation of native Americans, the institutionalized racism against people of non-European descent after the gold rush and right up to the 60s, and the implicit and explicit role of Stanford University, are what made this place what it is. A lot of what Harris writes in his book is also referenced in Kevin Starr's book, "California a History" as well. The history presented by the victors painted roses and sunshine, this one exposes the thorny underbelly. Also, folks who are privileged will remember a city or a place more nostalgically than folks who were at the receiving end at the same time.

Such great writing, Gennady, I loved reading this review! Lots of great writing in these comments, too.
Beautiful job, I'm amazed that you read 750 pages and muscled it down to this excellent piece, not surprising considering what you do with 6-hour city council meetings that spread over many topics and personalities. Thanks for your dedication to this town, as shown by your appearance on the Palo Alto Historical Association meeting on a Sunday afternoon at the Art Center a few weeks ago, to give your very astute current status of the city alongside the long-time professionals who provided the early history.
I especially appreciated "when you're a Marxist hammer every detail is a capitalist nail" and making it clear Harris' perspective, although deeply researched, screams his generation and personal/political experience.
I did finish "Who Killed Jane Stanford", an almost painfully detailed history, and found it fascinating. White makes the case it was probably not David Starr Jordan who did the deed, but the maid/assistant Bertha who pulled it off, and even though she continued to live a full life in quiet domesticity, there was always surrounding her a sheen of suspicion.
I'll definitely read the Harris book; I've read many reviews, but yours was the best.

@Native -- mindful of the fact that Roald Dahl's books have just been edited to remove some of the reality within... sanitized a la "Stanford's New Dictionary" -- I hear your frustration. You get my humor which is unsanitized as to speech but instead couched in humor so I can get to the "next level" here. It's half Mario Brothers World 8-4 and half The Raven as in, "once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary" which is the condition that 99% of PA residents are living in. You have to keep replaying every level from bottom to top if you crash in 8-4. Some day you will prevail on the top level and quoth the raven, nevermore. I think I have mentioned this before, there is a remedy for righting the conditions of an LIHTC property by requesting an inspection. Row your boat through these lily pad-filled waters: Web Link That is where the golden ticket is. I know you're hearing the Mario Brothers music in the back of your mind now, seeing Dahl's images and revisiting EAP poetry. Hope you have a better day, and keep on plugging. Someday you can write a book that rivals Harris!