Makers (2009)

Perry and Lester’s inventions become part of a wave of small-scale enterprises built from the wreckage of older corporations. Doctorow follows the enthusiasm and the instability together, asking what happens when useful ingenuity meets investors, legal pressure and the next commercial boom. Choose it for the distance between making something people value and securing a reliable livelihood from it. The sprawling story gives economic arrangements as much room as the gadgets.