Gilded Rage
Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley
1st Edition
Published on 9. October 2025
336 pages
978-1-3994-1996-3 (ISBN)
Description
** A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF 2025 **
** A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2025 **
'Lively and provocative.' FINANCIAL TIMES
'Makes a convincing case for how tech became radicalized.' BLOOMBERG
'Revelatory.' THE BULWARK
'sharp and ominous...an essential unmasking of the growing extremism among America's wealthy.' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
What happens if the world's richest and most powerful men decide to dismantle democracy?
In Gilded Rage, New York Times bestselling author Jacob Silverman takes us inside the surreal, high-stakes world of Silicon Valley. This is the story of the political awakening and radicalization of a cabal of tech billionaires and their descent into ideological extremism. Flush with cash from the zero-interest era, addicted to their own mythology, these men have began reshaping the world in their image -- and it should terrify us all.
At the center is Elon Musk, the mogul whose obsession with the "woke mind virus" has turned him from a tech innovator to an ideological crusader. But Musk is just the beginning. Silverman maps a sprawling network of radicalized elites - from Peter Thiel and JD Vance to the financiers bankrolling Donald Trump's return - who are using their platforms and their money to ensure a political revolution that's already underway.
This is not just a book about tech. It's about power. We meet the billionaires funding life-extension labs and embracing apocalyptic visions of AI. We examine the populist rhetoric that is leading to the ruthless dismantling of democratic norms. And we enter the strange, darkly comic world of the tech-oligarchy where libertarian dreams meet authoritarian impulses, and where the people with the most influence over our lives are the least accountable.
Silverman travels from San Francisco to Miami, New York to DC, following a movement that's rewriting the rules and oftentimes fighting a war against reality itself. With sharp reporting and a cast of extraordinary characters, Gilded Rage is a gripping, essential dispatch from the front lines of the billionaire revolution.
If you want to understand who is trying to control the future, and why, then this is the book you need to read.
** A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2025 **
'Lively and provocative.' FINANCIAL TIMES
'Makes a convincing case for how tech became radicalized.' BLOOMBERG
'Revelatory.' THE BULWARK
'sharp and ominous...an essential unmasking of the growing extremism among America's wealthy.' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
What happens if the world's richest and most powerful men decide to dismantle democracy?
In Gilded Rage, New York Times bestselling author Jacob Silverman takes us inside the surreal, high-stakes world of Silicon Valley. This is the story of the political awakening and radicalization of a cabal of tech billionaires and their descent into ideological extremism. Flush with cash from the zero-interest era, addicted to their own mythology, these men have began reshaping the world in their image -- and it should terrify us all.
At the center is Elon Musk, the mogul whose obsession with the "woke mind virus" has turned him from a tech innovator to an ideological crusader. But Musk is just the beginning. Silverman maps a sprawling network of radicalized elites - from Peter Thiel and JD Vance to the financiers bankrolling Donald Trump's return - who are using their platforms and their money to ensure a political revolution that's already underway.
This is not just a book about tech. It's about power. We meet the billionaires funding life-extension labs and embracing apocalyptic visions of AI. We examine the populist rhetoric that is leading to the ruthless dismantling of democratic norms. And we enter the strange, darkly comic world of the tech-oligarchy where libertarian dreams meet authoritarian impulses, and where the people with the most influence over our lives are the least accountable.
Silverman travels from San Francisco to Miami, New York to DC, following a movement that's rewriting the rules and oftentimes fighting a war against reality itself. With sharp reporting and a cast of extraordinary characters, Gilded Rage is a gripping, essential dispatch from the front lines of the billionaire revolution.
If you want to understand who is trying to control the future, and why, then this is the book you need to read.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN-13
978-1-3994-1996-3 (9781399419963)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
10/2025
Bloomsbury Continuum
€25.00
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
JACOB SILVERMAN is the author of Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection and co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud, which was a New York Times Bestseller. He's a contributing editor at The New Republic and The Baffler, and his work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and many other publications. He lives in New York.
Content
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Introduction: You Could Make a Lot of Money Here
- the reactionary utopians
- Chapter 1: December 14, 2016
- Chapter 2: Thiel and the New Alignment
- Chapter 3: Tech Libertarians Embrace the Security State
- Chapter 4: The Digital Authoritarian Style
- Chapter 5: Killing Twitter, Building X
- Chapter 6: The Saudi Influence behind Twitter and X
- Chapter 7: Learning to Hate the Place You Love
- Chapter 8: Billionaires v. The People of San Francisco
- Chapter 9: A Working Model
- Chapter 10: Finding The Exit
- Chapter 11: The Great Solano County Land Grab
- the mysterious founder steps forward
- Chapter 12: It's Free Money
- selling miami
- Chapter 13: The Crypto Swamp
- the empty penthouse and the fake ceo
- Chapter 14: The Tap Turns Off
- Chapter 15: The Companies Suck
- Chapter 16: TikTok, China, and the Moneyman of the Moment
- Chapter 17: The Road to Vance
- tech's most influential authoritarian
- becoming jd vance
- Chapter 18: Didn't the Last Guy Go to Prison?
- trump's crypto conversion
- Chapter 19: Best to Be Low-Key
- Chapter 20: Someone Has to Win
- donald trump gets orange-pilled
- Chapter 21: Election Day
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- List of Figures
- Index
