Accidental Empires

Infobox Book
name = Accidental Empires


image_caption = Revised edition (1996)
author = Mark Stephens (as Robert X. Cringley)
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States of America
language = English
series =
subject = Computer industry
publisher = Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc
release_date = February 1992
media_type = Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
pages = 324
isbn = 0201570327

"Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date" (1992, 1996), is a book written by Mark Stephens under the pen name Robert X. Cringely about the founding of the personal computer industry and the history of Silicon Valley. The style of the book is informal, and in the first chapter Cringley claims that he is not a historian but an explainer, and that "historians have a harder job because they can be faulted for what is left out; explainers like me can get away with printing only the juicy parts." [Ibid, pg 11]

The book was revised and republished in 1996, with new material added. A documentary based on the book, called "" was produced by PBS in 1996, with Cringely as the presenter.

The book was on the set-book list for the Open University course T171 You, Your Computer and the Net

Release details

*1991, United States of America, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc ISBN 0441006523, Pub date February 1992 Hardback
*1993, United States of America, Harper Collins ISBN 0887306217, Pub date February 1993, Paperback
*1996, United States of America, Harper Collins ISBN 0887308554, Pub date October 23 1996, Hardback
*1996, United States of America, Penguin Books Ltd ISBN 0140258264, Pub date April 4, 1996, Paperback

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