This book delivers exactly what its title promises: a straightforward and comprehensive account of the electronic digital computer's first five decades. Starting with the historic ENIAC of 1945, Ceruzzi moves nimbly through one epochal generation of computing technology after another: the gargantuan, vacuum-tube-filled mainframes of the early '50s; the sleeker, transistorized minicomputers of the '60s; the personal computers conjured up by hobbyists in the '70s; and the computer networks that have come to span offices and the globe in the last 10 years. Ceruzzi places all of these developments in the context of the social phenomena that shaped them: the imperatives of Cold War research, the evolving needs of information-swamped businesses, and the quirks and dreams of counter-cultural computer hackers. But unlike some popular books about computing history, this one refuses to acknowledge any particular individual, group, or institution as its protagonist. The tale it tells is complex: a weave of high-level projects, lowbrow tinkerings, and sweeping socioeconomic transformations, with a crash course in the basics of computer architecture tossed in for good measure. The mix doesn't make for great drama, but it does offer something perhaps more valuable--the sober, subtle feel of real history unfolding. --Julian Dibbell
Review
"As a historian who tends towards social constructionism, [Ceruzzi] says political and economic surroundings define our products and that there is nothing inevitable about any particular artifact or its effect. That's the sane philosophy underpinning a book that blends excellent technical explanation with accounts of personalities." -- Paul Fisher, The Daily Telegraph, November 26, 1998
"As the computer industry hands us tools that permeate most of our lives, there are few books that tell the story of how we got here...A History of Modern Computing lets a general audience learn about the industry's past, just as it becomes a constant presence." -- John Alderman, Wired News, December 18, 1998
"Ceruzzi, curator of the National Air and Space Museum's Department of Space History, aims to show how political, economic, and social factors directed technological developments. The book's best segments succeed brilliantly at that, skillfully knitting together different threads of history to demonstrate how accidental progress can be." -- Rob Pegobaro, Washington Post Book World, January 17, 1999
"Hindsight is a fine thing made all the finer in Paul Ceruzzi's excellent history." -- i
"The Altair 8800, released in 1975, had no keyboard or monitor. Sold via mail order, it was about the size of a breadbox and seemed about as technologically advanced; even the savviest programmers could do little more than make the lights on its front panel blink in patterns. In the age of mighty, room-sized IBM mainframes, the Altair looked downright puny. But Ceruzzi's new book restores the luster of this mostly forgotten device... Mindful as a curator not to take sides, Ceruzzi states as if it were a fundamental rule of physics: No one stays on top forever, no matter how rich." -- Louis Jacobson, Washington City Paper, December 11, 1998
"The computer as we know it is barely 50 years old, but it already has a rich and varied history... For those whose life and work have involved computing before the micro-processor, A History of Modern Computing will be a readable and fascinating memento. It brings together much of importance, and much that would otherwise be forgotten." -- Rupert Goodwins, Nature, January 28, 1999
"Using manuscripts and papers from many archives, libraries, and museums, Ceruzzi has written the best history of modern computing that I have had the opportunity to read." -- Otto M. Friedrich, Jr., Science Books & Films, April 1999
...a wonderful tale of conspiracy, cockups and lost opportunities. -- New Scientist, Michael Cross
About the Author
Paul Ceruzzi is Curator, National Air and Space Museum, Department of Space History, and the author of Beyond the Limits: Flight Enters the Computer Age.
