American Kingpin

True crime

Print length: 329 pagesPortfolio/Penguin, 2017

Description

In 2011, programmer Ross Ulbricht creates Silk Road, a Dark Web marketplace designed to let strangers trade illegal goods and services anonymously. Operating as Dread Pirate Roberts, he turns a libertarian experiment into a billion-dollar enterprise populated by drug dealers, hackers, and other dangerous clients. As Ulbricht recruits allies and takes increasingly extreme steps to protect the site, federal investigators begin a difficult two-year hunt for the person behind the screen. Nick Bilton reconstructs both sides of that pursuit through participant accounts and the extensive digital trail Ulbricht left behind. The result examines how technological idealism, criminal ambition, and state power collided inside an online system built to resist control.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Descriptive · Direct · Journalistic

Pace

Brisk

Tone

Dark · Suspenseful · Tense

Structure

Braided · Chronological nonfiction

Focus

Character · Ideas · Plot

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 3 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

AmbitionCrime and punishmentFreedomMoralityPowerTechnology and society

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Portfolio/Penguin
Language: English
ISBN: 9781591848141

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