Choice Review
Shockley's influence on modern civilization is powerful and pervasive. He won a Nobel Prize for inventing the transistor, and he also invented the kind of transistor fundamental to electronic and computer technologies. He made significant contributions to national defense in WW II and the postwar period. He was instrumental in the development of Silicon Valley as the nation's technology powerhouse. Shurkin (emer., Stanford Univ.) describes this and Shockley's troubled personal life. He emphasizes Shockley's loss of reputation and status, and his colleagues' repudiation of him when he spoke and wrote about eugenics, genetics, and race. There are many small errors; e.g., Shurkin is wrong about Hendrik Lorentz, about proximity fuses in WW II, and that "Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors, published in 1950, was Shockley's only book." In fact, Shockley wrote a nice work with Walter Gong, Mechanics, in 1966. In addition, Shurkin omits some of Shockley's scientific contributions, such as his work on dislocations and several of his contributions to the semiconductor industry. Photographs are small and poorly reproduced. However, there is much here that is well done, and there is new information giving insight into Shockley's motivation and behavior. His is a story that needs to be better known. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through professionals. A. M. Strauss Vanderbilt University
Library Journal Review
It is ironic that the Nobel Prize winner widely credited with inventing the transistor should be more frequently remembered for his pseudo-scientific, racist views on IQ. William Shockley's innovations at Shockley Semiconductor Laboratories spawned the tech-Mecca known today as Silicon Valley. How could this man drift from solid-state physics to the genetics of human intelligence, treating it with equal intensity but far less rigor or, to pose the question Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Shurkin (Engines of the Mind) asks in his preface, "Why would a man as unquestionably brilliant as he knowingly and deliberately destroy himself?" In search of answers, Shurkin combs through a trove of personal documents and family memorabilia, among them the 1943 suicide note Shockley saved after a failed attempt at taking his life. Knowing this particular aspect of Shockley's past might provide some context and explanation for the legendary arrogance and paranoia he displayed in his labs, as well as for his eventually obsessive advocacy of eugenics and some of its most radical protocols (e.g., involuntary sterilization). Shurkin portrays Shockley as a consummately driven man in all of his endeavors, who was, ultimately, driven to self-destruction. Highly recommended. Gregg Sapp, Science Lib., Univ. at Albany (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
