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Books on Computer History?

Posted by Cliff on from the tracking-progress dept.

catf00d asks: "My Dad has been in the computer biz since there was a computer biz. (He programmed the UNIVAC-1 and just retired from IBM.) For X-mas, I'd like to get him a book on the history of computers, so that he can see his place in the grand scheme. Can you guys recommend a good book?"

6 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. Hackers by m_evanchik · · Score: 2

    Hackers by Stephen Levy

    It's not as far reaching as you are looking for, but still a very good book. The title refers to the old-style hacker, one who likes to find out how things work, rather than the more malevolent cracker.

    Hackers outlines the desktop software development movement, starting from the halls of MIT to the early days of the PC. It's less a definitive history and more of an interesting story, but it definitely gives good perspective of how big computing movements develop from small beginnings.

    It was written over ten years ago, so it is not "up-to-date" but it is a great snapshot of the personalities involved at the start of the PC era.

    --

    evanchik.net

  2. Some books by smoon · · Score: 2

    "A few good men from Univac" is a great book (good luck finding it though, as it's out of print...)

    "Eniac" is good.

    "Nerds" is a good history of the genesis of the Internet.

    "We were burning" is a good book about the japanese semiconductor industry.

    "A history of modern computing" is good.

    "The invention that changed the world", actually about radar, but nice lead-ins from 1940s technology providing the genesis for the computer industry.

    --
    "But actually trying to use m4 as a general-purpose langage would be deeply perverse" --ESR
  3. Out of Their Minds by wdavies · · Score: 2

    But its out of print according to Amazon, but they do have second hand copies. You might also get from B&N or elsewhere. Great Book.

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/038798269 8/ qid=1008405307/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_11_3/002-2623870-83 06446

    Regards,
    Winton

  4. Actually... by cr0sh · · Score: 2

    The best computer "history" books that I know of aren't history books at all - but rather books contemporary for the time, which examine computers as "state-of-the-art" machines, describing them and the advances as they were happenning for the period.

    Finding such books can be a long and difficult task - almost all of them will be out of print. I suggest if you (or anyone else) take this route to build a "history", to check in the antique district where you live for used/rare/antique books - sometimes you will find the strangest things (like, I found one book that described how to build your own radio telescope - however it was tube based).

    For something in print, the best computer history book I have come across is "Computer: A History of the Information Machine" by Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray (ISBN 0-465-02989-2).

    It starts out with basically Charles Babbage, moves on to Herman Hollerith, then into Remington Rand, NCR, and the birth of IBM (spawned from Hollerith's enterprise - which is a whole book unto itself), then into Lord Kelvin's Tide Predictor, the Harvard Mark I, the ABC, the MTI - then into ENIAC and EDVAC, EDSAC. Then it goes into business machines - UNIVAC, BINAC, IBM's early boxes, starting with the 701 - then onto the large iron - beginning with the 1401, moving into the System/360, then ending with IBM's decline with the PC market. Then, chapters on Project Whirlwind and SAGE, the SABRE system (airline reservation). Then, software, timesharing and simple computer languages (such as Fortran and BASIC), the rise of the minicomputers and Unix, finally ending with microcomputers, the internet, and more.

    A very good read - not overly technical, not overly detailed - but a good "overall" history, with enough detail to see how it all came together, who the major (and minor) players were, etc. It isn't like other books which start out with calculators and end with the ENIAC - instead, it starts closer to our time, with the beginnings of a true computer, albeit a mechanical one (Babbage).

    Actually, couple this book in a collection with "Herman Hollerith" by Geoffrey D. Austrian, "Hackers" by Steven Levy, and the recent American release of "The Difference Engine" by Doron Swade, and I daresay you will probably have as near as can be imagined "complete" history of computers (ok, there are a few other books I would add in - the book on the ENIAC, Where Wizards Stay Up Late, Soul of a New Machine, etc).

    You know - I look at my bookshelf - seeing these tons of contemporary and historical computer books - I think to myself "Amazing - the sheer vastness of this industry - this hobby - seems almost overwhelming!" - makes me wonder why man still fights one another over petty things... sigh.

    --
    Reason is the Path to God - Anon
  5. Re:this might be a good book by sigwinch · · Score: 2

    I second Go To. I haven't finished reading it yet, but it's got good material on the early development of modern computing. Definitely not the usual Sili Valley and/or Microsoft story.

    --

    --
    Kuro5hin.org: where the good times never end. ;-)

  6. Levy. by saintlupus · · Score: 2

    People have already suggested _Hackers_ by Steven Lecy, and rightly so -- it's a hell of a read. His newer book, _Crypto_, is also quite good if your father has any sort of interest in cryptography or government supervision of the computer industry.

    Oh, and _Fire in the Valley_ is supposed to be good, though I haven't read it myself.

    --saint