The Contrarian

Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power

By: Max Chafkin

Narrated by: Will Damron

Bloomsbury presents The Contrarian by Max Chafkin, read by Will Damron.

A biography of venture capitalist and entrepreneur Peter Thiel, the enigmatic, controversial and hugely influential power broker who sits at the dynamic intersection of tech, business and politics

Since the days of the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s, no industry has made a greater global impact than Silicon Valley. And few individuals have done more to shape Silicon Valley than billionaire venture capitalist and entrepreneur Peter Thiel. From the technologies we use every day to the delicate power balance between Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington, Thiel has been a behind-the-scenes operator influencing countless aspects of contemporary life. But despite his power and the ubiquity of his projects, no public figure is quite so mysterious.

In the first major biography of Thiel, Max Chafkin traces the trajectory of the innovator's singular life and worldview, from his upbringing as the child of immigrant parents and years at Stanford as a burgeoning conservative thought leader to his founding of PayPal and Palantir, early investment in Facebook and SpaceX, and relationships with fellow tech titans Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Eric Schmidt. The Contrarian illuminates the extent to which Thiel has sought to export his values to the corridors of power beyond Silicon Valley, such as funding the lawsuit that bankrupted the blog Gawker to strenuously backing far-right political candidates, including Donald Trump for president.

Eye-opening and deeply reported, The Contrarian is a revelatory biography of a one-of-a-kind leader and an incisive portrait of a tech industry whose explosive growth and power is both thrilling and fraught with controversy.

©2021 Max Chafkin (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Fascinating

So, Peter Thiel, the investor. Wow, this book shed some light at how some Silicon Valley’s investors operate. Backstabbing, money grabbing person, out for power, for control. Fascinating to get a inside into this person, but not my kind of person.

Great Read!

An engaging book!
Well written.
Great narrator.
It is a Must Read.
Dont be fooled. Make up your own mind.

The man -Peter

Extremely helpful
I now know the Man-Peter Thiel. Powerful man
I truly enjoyed, learnt a lot on how m business and friends ought to be managed.

A bitter delivery

I think the author struggled to hide his personal bias and disdain for the subject. I eventually got the audiobook hoping it would make it easier to digest. Eventually got through.