Books

Books to clear-up the echo chamber fog

By Brij Singh ⋅ January 8, 2005 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Title of this book caught my attention - The Devil In Silicon Valley. Its a refreshingly new take on the Silicon Valley’s social undercurrent. Haven’t read the whole book, but glanced through few sections. Author Stephen Pitti makes a case that ethnic Mexicans and not the computer programmers take center stage in any contemporary discussion of the "new West".

This quote from the book:

Father Narciso was accused of baptizing Indians by force. When punished they protested, "Father, it hurts!"

"Of course," agreed the missionary, "but the pains of hell hurt worse."
–Mrs. Fremont Older, California Missions and Their Romances

We all live in this same place and still I know so little about this place and it’s socio-political history. In a queer way this book reminded me of another book which I bought from India but haven’t started reading it. It’s called India’s Silent Revolution written by Christophe Jaffrelot.  Book’s short description from Amazon:

Since the 1960s a new assertiveness has characterized India´s formerly
silent majority, the lower castes that comprise more than two-thirds of
the population. Today India´s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, is
controlled by lower-caste politicians, as is Bihar, and lower-caste
representation in national politics is growing inexorably. Jaffrelot
argues that this trend constitutes a genuine "democratization" of India
and that the social and economic effects of this "silent revolution"
are bound to multiply in the years to come

It’s not surprising at all that the mainstream media hasn’t given as much coverage of these two books as they do to the other topics.

More so in these times when the talk is cheap, its what is not getting discussed is more important sometimes.