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The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power Kindle Edition

by Max Chafkin (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.9 out of 5 stars 582 ratings
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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.
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  1. Print length
    362 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Bloomsbury Publishing
  4. Accessibility
    Learn more
  5. Publication date
    21 September 2021
  6. File size
    9.4 MB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Review

"A judicious biography. . . . Unfailing diligent. . . . The Contrarian isn't just about Thiel; it's about Silicon Valley's political coming-of-age, too." --New York Times

"In writing a biography of Thiel, the deck was stacked against Max Chafkin . . . who daringly took to the task. His new book . . . charts the billionaire's rise from his early days as a precocious chess champion who never quite fit in to a world-conquering tech visionary and political firebrand." --Fortune, "The Best Books of 2021"

"Peter Thiel is one of tech's most powerful people and one of its most enigmatic. That's why Max Chafkin's new biography of Thiel is so welcome. The Contrarian is a deep study of a Valley anomaly. . . . Chafkin digs deep to help us understand his subject." --Wired

"Max Chafkin takes a deep dive into the life and history of billionaire entrepreneur and Silicon Valley whisperer Peter Thiel. . . . What's striking to me about the book is the number of people who chose not to go on the record, out of fear of possible retaliation. A great read if you're looking to understand the nuances of PayPal's origin story and Thiel's contributions to Trump's 2016 election run." --Yahoo Finance, "The Best Business Books We Read in 2021"

"Chafkin has assembled a richly detailed portrait of an evasive subject." --The Baffler

"A sharp and disturbing biography. . . . Chafkin's chronicle of Thiel's wild abandon during the Obama years contains some of the most suspenseful passages in the book, as the narrative hurtles toward his acquisition of actual political power. . . . The Contrarian is chilling--literally chilling. As I read it, I grew colder and colder, until I found myself curled up under a blanket on a sunny day, icy and anxious. Scared people are scary, and Chafkin's masterly evocation of his subject's galactic fear--of liberals, of the U.S. government, of death--turns Thiel himself into a threat. I tried to tell myself that Thiel is just another rapacious solipsist, in it for the money, but I used to tell myself that about another rapacious solipsist, and he became president." --The New York Times Book Review

"There are enough juicy details in this portrait of the controversial tech billionaire Peter Thiel to keep you on the hook." --Vulture

"Max Chafkin's The Contrarian makes for deeply uncomfortable reading. This meticulous biography of big tech's leading conservative figure (Thiel was a prominent Trump backer, and spoke at the 2016 Republican convention) is full of moments that would startle those with the hardiest constitutions." --The Spectator

"Horribly fascinating. . . . Chafkin carefully documents a detestable man of extraordinary contradictions." --The Irish Times

"Punchy and caustic . . . an engrossing look at one of Silicon Valley's most eccentric and abrasive figures." --Publishers Weekly

"[Chafkin] does an excellent job of unpicking the disparate elements of the Thiel mythology. Nothing is quite what it seems." --London Review of Books

"A revealing portrait. . . . A savvy biography. . . . Chafkin deftly portrays his subject as a 'calculating operator, ' 'nihilist, ' and predator who has constructed an image 'so compelling that it has come to obscure the man behind it.' A brisk, well-researched life of an enigmatic billionaire." --Kirkus

"Max Chafkin's The Contrarian is much more than a consistently shocking biography of Peter Thiel, the most important investor in tech and a key supporter of the Donald Trump presidency. It's also a disturbing history of Silicon Valley that will make you reconsider the ideological foundations of America's relentless engine of creative destruction." --Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store

"The Contrarian is a captivating, incisive, rigorously reported examination of Silicon Valley's most mysterious and controversial powerbroker. Max Chafkin doesn't just illuminate the life of Peter Thiel and the unsettling world he has created. With peerless authority, he tells the broader story of our age, showing us how Silicon Valley's early utopianism was attacked from within, succumbing to largely unseen forces and giving rise to the darker, more dangerous world we inhabit today." --Joshua Green, author of Devil's Bargain

"In The Contrarian, Max Chafkin takes us on a fascinating journey into the life and mind of one of the most influential, and least understood, figures in business and politics." --Sheelah Kolhatkar, author of Black Edge


"Max Chafkin has taken on the daring task of profiling one of the most secretive and powerful men in the history of Silicon Valley. A dogged reporter and an entertaining writer, he weaves an epic tale filled with startling ambition, cold calculation, and a large helping of contrarian--and contradictory--opinions." --Emily Chang, author of Brotopia

"Whether you admire him or fear him, Peter Thiel's influence has been undeniable. In this deeply reported and gripping biography, Max Chafkin reveals the lessons behind Thiel's rise. It offers essential insights for anyone who wants to understand what Silicon Valley's global ascendance has wrought--and it's a really great read." --Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better

About the Author

Max Chafkin is a features editor and a tech reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek. His work has also appeared in Fast Company, Vanity Fair, Inc., and The New York Times Magazine. He lives in Queens, New York with his wife, the journalist Christine Lagorio-Chafkin, and their children.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08YR3GRQX
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Publishing
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 21 September 2021
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ 1st
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 9.4 MB
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 362 pages
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1526619587
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Best Sellers Rank: 188,433 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 out of 5 stars 582 ratings

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Max Chafkin

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Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
582 global ratings

Top reviews from Australia

  • william stuart
    1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing read
    Reviewed in Australia on 16 February 2023
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    A biased hit job and this becomes clear very early on and becomes a constant refrain.
    Even one conservative Silicon Valley billionaire is too much for Chafkin to bear
    Helpful
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  • ThePenguin
    1.0 out of 5 stars A political hit piece
    Reviewed in Australia on 1 January 2022
    A very disappointing read.
    Peter Thiel is an interesting character and a biography (written by a proper biographer) would have been fascinating.
    Instead what we get here is a longform, partisan hit piece by a political hack from Bloomberg.

    If your politics lean left, read this book and have every bias, every prejudice confirmed 10x over and be left with a warm inner glow of smug self-satisfaction.

    However if you want to objectively understand Peter Thiel best look elsewhere...
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Biggles Hale
    1.0 out of 5 stars Highly opinionated/bias
    Reviewed in Australia on 15 December 2021
    Format: Kindle
    The author’s political leanings and biases spoil what could have been an informative book. He casts aspersions and biased opinions constantly throughout which irritates. I initially tried to cater to this bias and ignore it, but it becomes impossible to do. This ended up being a serious waste of time and money.
    2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • KjellAxel
    1.0 out of 5 stars On the border of hate speech.
    Reviewed in Sweden on 30 December 2022
    Verified Purchase
    The author obviously hates Peter Thiel. That is OK, but I was interested in learning about Thiel, not about the author’s agenda. I am sorry that I bought the book.
    Report
  • Nathik
    1.0 out of 5 stars Save your time and money
    Reviewed in India on 30 December 2021
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    I have been watching Peter Thiel for some time and very much intrigued by his contradictory and contrarian ideas. And I picked up this book with an expectation to get an account of his life and world view. But much to my disappointment this is nothing more than a hit piece. The author clearly lacks objectivity and wants to get a quick buck bashing Peter Thiel; I’m all for the little guy making money bashing billionaires but have some objectivity for God’s sake. Don’t recommend this book. Save your time and money.
    Report
  • Pontifex Maximus
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 July 2025
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    I'm about 20% through this and it is excellent - detailed, well-written, and easy to keep reading. Glad I bought it.
    Report
  • JoAnne Goldberg
    5.0 out of 5 stars Successful sociopath
    Reviewed in the United States on 30 September 2021
    Verified Purchase
    A week ago, I attended a bookstore event entitled "Thiel's Pursuit of Power," an interview of Max Chafkin by fellow Bloomberg reporter Emily Chang. One of the last questions she asked was about Peter Thiel's propensity to exact revenge on anyone who opposes him. Was Max worried?

    "Well, I am not selling any sex tapes," he said, an allusion to Thiel's destruction of Gawker via Hulk Hogan. Nervous laughter ensued.

    The one-star reviews here have Peter Thiel's fingerprints all over them, especially the 3,500 word diatribe that had hundreds of likes within a day of the book's release. (I suspect he wrote it; if he didn't, he provided most of the content.) I hope it doesn't get any worse than one-star reviews for Max Chafkin, as he's written a fascinating tale of a diabolical plotter who's achieved inordinate success -- partly because he has few scruples and seems to care about no one other than Peter Thiel.

    As a resident of the local area, I could not have been happier to hear that Palantir was leaving for Colorado. For years, the Palantir minions had dominated downtown Palo Alto, driving out dozens of businesses in their insatiable need for additional office space, the glassy-eyed millennials roaming the sidewalks. Were they spying on us? They didn't even seem to see us. It's entirely amusing that Palantir's farewell statement to Silicon Valley made snarky comments about Google and Facebook spying on people and selling their information. Sure they do, but they also offer other services. Palantir is only about spying, and its presence here made many residents uncomfortable.

    So I was fascinated to read that Palantir had been something of a bust -- its software didn't work that well -- and if not for the small investment that Thiel made in a former president's campaign, one that brought in billions of dollars in contracts, the company might not have survived. Similarly, PayPal had been a poorly-run enterprise under Thiel: the more customers it acquired, the more money it lost. Who knew? Meanwhile, Thiel has socked away billions of untaxable dollars thanks to major loopholes in the Roth IRA -- loopholes that most of us could never exploit -- and bought citizenship in New Zealand, a favorite doomsteader haven.

    My favorite part of the book describes Thiel's efforts to exert influence over the 45th president after backing his candidacy. In this situation, Thiel was out-manipulated, and by that point of the book, I was ready to root for anyone who managed to get the better of him. Thiel's style is domination through fear, and the former guy simply wasn't afraid.

    The Contrarian is far from perfect: it could have used better editing. At least twice, the author repeats the same story in a slightly different way. There are a few inaccuracies -- the school's legal name is in fact Leland Stanford Junior University (rarely used day-to-day, probably because the school got tired of explaining that it was not a "junior university"). Names are misspelled. That was offputting at times, but not enough to detract from the tales that made this book a riveting read.
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  • Amazon Customer
    1.0 out of 5 stars biased
    Reviewed in France on 3 October 2021
    Verified Purchase
    High expectations of this book but fully destroyed by the lack of objectivity from the author… Not worth as too politically oriented
    Report

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