The Idea Factory

The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation is a 2012 book by Jon Gertner that describes the history of Bell Labs, the research and development wing of AT&T, as well as many of its personalities, including Claude Shannon and William Shockley.^[1][2][3][4]

The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation

First edition
Author	Jon Gertner
Language	English
Subject	Bell Labs
Genre	Corporate history
Publisher	Penguin Press
Publication date	March 15, 2012
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardcover), print (paperback), e-book, audiobook
Pages	432
ISBN	9781594203282

Reception

The New York Times said that Gertner's "portraits of Kelly and the cadre of talented scientists who worked at Bell Labs are animated by a journalistic ability to make their discoveries and inventions utterly comprehensible".^[5]

The Idea Factory was reviewed favorably by Foreign Policy, the New York Times, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer and others.^[5][6][7] Three adapted excerpts from the book were published in TIME.^[8]

Facebook co-founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg recommended The Idea Factory to his book club in 2015, saying of the choice, "[he is] very interested in what causes innovation — what kinds of people, questions and environments."^[9][10]