Route 128 and the Birth of the Age of High Tech (MA) (Images of America). This item is unavailable.Route 128 and the Birth of the Age of High Tech (MA) (Images of America)

From the invention of ether and the telephone in the nineteenth century to the birth of radar and the computer in the twentieth century, Greater Boston has been a hotbed for creating and nurturing new ideas. In the early years of the century, the ground was being sown for a new economy to supplant the slowly declining shoe and textile manufacturing industries that had long dominated the region. After World War II, Route 128, dubbed by critics "the road to nowhere," became the locus of this high-tech development. Although originally intended to ease gridlock and provide an avenue to recreational opportunities, by the late 1950s, Route 128 was dotted with industrial parks and new subdivisions. It was soon known as the Golden Crescent, in recognition of the prosperity it brought to the whole region.

Route 128 and the Birth of the Age of High Tech tells the intertwining stories of the construction of the nation's first circumferential beltway and the burgeoning high-tech industries of Massachusetts, which helped spawn the modern age of personal computers, the Internet, and biotechnology.

Written by a journalist who has covered the region's high-tech sector for more than twenty years, Route 128 and the Birth of the Age of High Tech will appeal to anyone who has ever lived or worked in eastern Massachusetts, particularly those connected to the high-tech industries. The son of an engineer who worked at several of the area's early high-tech firms, Alan R. Earls grew up in the suburbs of Boston. He is a former editor of Mass High Tech newspaper and continues to write widely for business and consumer publications.