Why was the southern part of the Bay Area made into a tech hub?
Other places deserve a revitalization, like maybe East St. Louis and the surrounding area on the east bank of the Mighty Mississippi. Wonder why a tech hub wouldn't get developed there instead.
I wonder what the historical reasons were in developing the southern Bay Area for this.
I'll recommend you two books, one more technical and academic, the other a generalist approach.
For the former, I suggest Understanding Silicon Valley: The Anatomy of an Entrepreneurial Region. It's a collection of essays divided into three parts. The first deals with the history of the region and discusses how the defense industry provided a ready market for high-technology products while California's excellent network of public and private universities, particularly Stanford and CalTech, supplied innovative and intelligent workers.
The second part of Understanding Silicon Valley covers the institutions that made the region thrive ─ the legal networks that allowed and protected innovation and the venture capital resources that provided the means for new businesses to succeed.
The third part of the book offers different perspectives on the attitude and environment that makes the region continue to thrive. One of the more compelling items suggests that the region's mores are based on performance rather than virtue or ethics, driving success at any price.
For the latter book, I suggest The Silicon Boys And Their Valley of Dreams. It came out in 2000 and focuses a bit too much on modern culture for my taste, but it does a good job of going back to the 1930s, when Stanford University professor Frederick Terman encouraged many of his electronics students to found their companies, then lent those students the capital they needed to succeed.
If any one person can be credited with founding Silicon Valley, it's likely Terman.
I remeber Francis Fukuyama said in a conference that (I do not remember whether he was quoting someone else) anti-authoriterianism, critical thinking, and free lifestyle spirit in the San Francisco area helped Silicon Valley developed in that region.