Tropics of Silicon: labor and the making of global electronics in Southeast Asia is about that “missing middle” of the story of global electronics outsourcing. Well before China was open for business, American and European companies were looking East. By focusing on Southeast Asia – and particularly on Singapore’s role as an emerging regional hub – this book sheds new light on why and how the complex global system of electronics manufacturing emerged and what long-term effects it has had. Drawing together the longer story of electronics manufacturing requires a history of technology that crosses multiple scales, both zooming in to local factories and zooming out to global networks and economies. The resulting multi-scalar history of technology brings together work from area studies, urban history, and global history to understand the dynamics through which global electronics manufacturing emerged.