"The Devil in Silicon Valley"--A Review

Paper Summary:

This book review shows how Stephen J. Pitti's work attempts to address a historical gap in the academic and popular literature of the history of California. His work, "The Devil in Silicon Valley: Northern California, Race, and Mexican Americans," focuses on the economic contributions of Native-Americans, Mexicans and non-white labor in the economic prosperity of California. Although the reviewer states that Pitti's work is grounded in substantial historical documentation, one weakness of the book is perhaps the simplicity of its thesis--that racism justified the subjugation and use of Hispanic and Indian labor.

From the Paper:

"These non-Anglos enjoyed little financial rewards for the gains they won for the state's Caucasian settlers. The discrepancy of the fortune of whites and non-whites traces back to the earliest missionaries. Then, "the friars undoubtedly resorted to more [and more] brutal tactics to ensure that non-Christians entered their Christian community" of the day (15). Indos, the native people, were viewed as inferior even after they were converts. As white settlements grew more populous in the 1840s, scientific and anthropological justifications of white supremacy took hold. The mixed race Californios were "indolent" and forced the Indian "savages" to work rather than work themselves, and thus were not worthy of the land on which they lived (26)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Pitti, Stephen J. The Devil's in Silicon Valley: Northern California, Race, and Mexican Americans. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.

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