Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut

Looking back after half a decade, the ecstatic rise, dramatic fall, and remarkable comeback of Amazon.com can be viewed simultaneously as a paean to the internet age, a cautionary tale of heedless investment, and the consummate symbol of the unprecedented phenomenon that was American in the late 1990s. In 1996 James Marcus was hired as Amazon’s 55th employee, giving him a ringside seat for observing how it was to be in the right place (Seattle) at the right time (the 90s) (Chicago Reader) inside a company that would come to represent for many the great optimism (and even greater disappointment) of the period. From the fascinating account of his first interview with Jeff Bezos to his description of the bizarre, Nordic-style company retreats, Marcus’s tale brims with fascinating Amazoniana (Los Angeles Times). But more than that, in the tradition of the most noteworthy and entertaining memories of recent years, Marcus offers us a clear-eyed, first person account, rife with digressions of the larger cultural meaning throughout (Newsday).