| There was a time, not too long ago, when the typewriter and
notebook ruled, and the computer as an everyday tool was
simply a vision. Revolution in the Valley traces this vision
back to its earliest roots: the hallways and backrooms of
Apple, where the groundbreaking Macintosh computer was born.
The book traces the development of the Macintosh, from its
inception as an underground skunkworks project in 1979 to
its triumphant introduction in 1984 and beyond.
The stories in Revolution in the Valley come on extremely
good authority. That's because author Andy Hertzfeld was a
core member of the team that built the Macintosh system
software, and a key creator of the Mac's radically new user
interface software. One of the chosen few who worked with
the mercurial Steve Jobs, you might call him the ultimate
insider.
When Revolution in the Valley begins, Hertzfeld is working
on Apple's first attempt at a low-cost, consumer-oriented
computer: the Apple II. He sees that Steve Jobs is luring
some of the company's most brilliant innovators to work on a
tiny research effort the Macintosh. Hertzfeld manages to
make his way onto the Macintosh research team, and the rest
is history.
Through lavish illustrations, period photos (many never
before published), and Hertzfeld's vivid first-hand
accounts, Revolution in the Valley reveals what it was like
to be there at the birth of the personal computer
revolution. The story comes to life through the book's
portrait of the talented and often eccentric characters who
made up the Macintosh team. Now, over 20 years later,
millions of people are benefiting from the technical
achievements of this determined and brilliant group of
people.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT 
Published by: O'REILLY & ASSOCIATES