A nice, if dry history of VC in the US.
While the recent history of VC firms like Greylock, Sequoia was interesting, I’m still partial to the description of the whaling ventures, and most appreciated the returns chart showing how whaling returns align almost precisely with VC shops. The last decade of VC megaboom has left this book a bit outdated, but getting the context on different models that have been tried and were considered failures (especially the government versions of VC made it a worthwhile read.
I got a better understanding of the tension between invention and professionalization beyond just tech startups, and now appreciate just how old most VC firms are.