The Apple II Age: How the Computer Became Personal

Nooney, Laine

ISBN 10: 0226816524 / ISBN 13: 9780226816524

Published by University of Chicago Press, Chicago/London, 2023

About this Item

Hardcover cream boards with orange titling on the spine. Includes color and b/w photographs, Sources, Notes, Bibliography and Index, 356 pages. The DJ is in New condition.

Seller Inventory # 014562

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Apple II Age: How the Computer Became Personal
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press, Chicago/London
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226816524
• ISBN 13: 9780226816524
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

An engrossing origin story for the personal computer—showing how the Apple II’s software helped a machine transcend from hobbyists’ plaything to essential home appliance.
 
Skip the iPhone, the iPod, and the Macintosh. If you want to understand how Apple Inc. became an industry behemoth, look no further than the 1977 Apple II. Designed by the brilliant engineer Steve Wozniak and hustled into the marketplace by his Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, the Apple II became one of the most prominent personal computers of this dawning industry.
 
The Apple II was a versatile piece of hardware, but its most compelling story isn’t found in the feat of its engineering, the personalities of Apple’s founders, or the way it set the stage for the company’s multibillion-dollar future. Instead, historian Laine Nooney shows, what made the Apple II iconic was its software. In software, we discover the material reasons people bought computers. Not to hack, but to play. Not to code, but to calculate. Not to program, but to print. The story of personal computing in the United States is not about the evolution of hackers—it’s about the rise of everyday users.
 
Recounting a constellation of software creation stories, Nooney offers a new understanding of how the hobbyists’ microcomputers of the 1970s became the personal computer we know today. From iconic software products like VisiCalc and The Print Shop to historic games like Mystery House and Snooper Troops to long-forgotten disk-cracking utilities, The Apple II Age offers an unprecedented look at the people, the industry, and the money that built the microcomputing milieu—and why so much of it converged around the pioneering Apple II.
 

About the Author

Laine Nooney is associate professor of media and information industries at New York University. Their research has been featured by outlets such as the Atlantic, Motherboard, and NPR. They live in New York City, where their hobbies include motorcycles, tugboats, and Texas Hold’em.