The Economist reads | Silicon Valley

The five best books for understanding Silicon Valley’s history

Pentagon officials, hippies and whizzkids all feature

Portrait of American businessman and engineer Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer Inc, at the first West Coast Computer Faire, where the Apple II computer was debuted, in Brooks Hall, San Francisco, California, April 16th or 17th, 1977. (Photo by Tom Munnecke/Getty Images)

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Books for young children that you can read over and over and over

Parents will enjoy these, too

Books that imagine that history took a different course

What if Hitler had won and Hillary Rodham had broken up with Bill Clinton?


What to read about America’s culture wars

Four books on controversies that helped to shape the presidential election


What to read about grief and bereavement

Six books about feelings that are both universal and unique to the person experiencing them

Books that probe the secrets of the Mossad

Seven books on Israeli intelligence agencies, which are spearheading the offensive against Hizbullah in Lebanon

An introduction to Lebanon, perhaps the next front in a wider war

Four books and a film on a pivotal Middle Eastern country