Bookpile 5: The New Patriarchs of Digital Capitalism
Bookpile is short posts on Fridays about what I’m reading now and what I’m liking about it. This week, it’s The New Patriarchs of Digital Capitalism by Ben Little and Alison Winch.
It wouldn't be a respectable bookpile without books I've been meaning to read for ages and have only just gotten around to starting. The New Patriarchs of Digital Capitalism takes the study of celebrity and applies it to seven major Silicon Valley personalities. The study takes a textual approach, using a collection of books as a corpus on which to perform linguistic data analysis.
But you don't need to go into the methodological weeds to appreciate the stories being told. Published in 2021, it predates the latest round of capitulation/synergy we've seen by these tech/business personalities to the desires of the Trump government. Instead, Little and Winch present a compelling story about the formation of public identities and networks of power within Big Tech.
The chapters of the book are largely divided to focus on one personality at a time, though overlap is inevitable. I've gotten through all of Musk and most of Bezos. It's a compelling read, and puts analytical flesh on the bones of the idea that specific ideologies are at play in the way such celebrity founders present themselves, relate to their peers, and exercise their power. It's a welcome reminder that the actions we're seeing now don't come out of nowhere, and have their bases in entrenched structures, hierarchies, and ideals.
