Greed, eugenics and giant gambles: author Malcolm Harris on the deadly toll of Silicon Valley capitalism

The book, named one of the most anticipated of the year by the New York Times, Bloomberg and the Los Angeles Times, has already gone through four printings, not a guaranteed outcome for a 700-page history of capitalism written by a 34-year-old. But Harris, like the tech disruptors he dissects in his book, got his start early, describing being arrested in high school for passing out flyers against standardized testing, and fighting a legal battle at 23 when his own tweets about an Occupy Wall Street protest were used against him in court.

Harris, who now lives in Washington, DC, spoke to the Guardian about the personal and political history behind his sweeping historical polemic. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.