Computing: A Concise History

Discover the history of computing through 4 major threads of development in this compact, accessible history covering punch cards, Silicon Valley, smartphones, and much more.

In an accessible style, computer historian Paul Ceruzzi offers a broad though detailed history of computing, from the first use of the word “digital” in 1942 to the development of punch cards and the first general purpose computer, to the internet, Silicon Valley, and smartphones and social networking.

Ceruzzi identifies 4 major threads that run throughout all of computing’s technological development:

• Digitization: the coding of information, computation, and control in binary form
• The convergence of multiple streams of techniques, devices, and machines
• The steady advance of electronic technology, as characterized famously by “Moore's Law”
• Human-machine interface

The history of computing could be told as the story of hardware and software, or the story of the Internet, or the story of “smart” hand-held devices. In this concise and accessible account of the invention and development of digital technology, Ceruzzi offers a general and more useful perspective for students of computer science and history.

Paul E. Ceruzzi is Curator at the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution. He is the author of Computing: A Concise History, A History of Modern Computing, and Internet Alley: High Technology in Tysons Corner, 1945–2005, all published by the MIT Press, and other books.