Dealers of Lightning by Michael Hiltzik

The story of Xerox PARC - a story of brilliant design, innovation, creativity and missed opportunity. A story of corporate executives who didn't listen and knew better than the researchers they hired. A failure to see that what was difficult, slow, and expensive now would be easy, fast, and cheap, even ubiquitous, soon. Also a story of scientists who fail to get the big picture. The invention of the laser printer is a bright spot. Some less interesting parts about corporation politics.