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Secret History of Silicon Valley

Computer History Museum · 490.9K views · 2008-12-04 · 1:02:47

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Overview

Steve Blank's Computer History Museum lecture argues that Silicon Valley's roots lie in WWII radar and electronic warfare work, Stanford's Fred Terman and Cold War military funding rather than the semiconductor alone.

On Hacker News

HN commenters call it a favorite introduction to Valley history and cite it whenever government and military funding of tech comes up.

Recommended by 6 HN people across 6 months · HN mentions 2010–2026

Topics

History of computingTech company stories & documentariesMilitary history & warfare
Search by tags
silicon valleysteve blankradarstanfordmilitary fundinghistory

What people said

cpr · 2014-01 · Strong recommendation

You've gotta watch Steve Blank's "The Secret History of Silicon Valley". Goes back to its post-war roots in 40's and 50's. A real gem and quite surprising. [VIDEO]

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lukejduncan · 2012-04 · Strong recommendation

When I first moved here my favorite introduction to the valleys history was Steve Blanks The Secret History of Silicon Valley. It's well worth the hour [VIDEO]

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rapsey · 2024-04 · Recommendation

I'm sure there are lots of reading options but this is a very good presentation on the topic (of Silicon Valley and Stanford). [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Computer History Museum, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks
  • SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
  • Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources