"[A] wonderful tale. . . . Ceruzzi has written the definitive account."
-- Michael Cross, New Scientist
This
engaging history covers modern computing from the development of the first electronic
digital computer through the advent of the World Wide Web. The author concentrates on
four key moments of transition: the transformation of the computer in the late 1940s from
a specialized scientific instrument to a commercial product; the emergence of small
systems in the late 1960s; the beginnings of personal computing in the 1970s; and the
spread of networking after 1985. The focus is on the United States, on computing per se
rather than on applications such as artificial intelligence, and on systems that were sold
commercially and installed in quantities. The author balances stories of individuals with
those of institutions and emphasizes those factors that conspired to bring about the
decisive shifts in the story.
Paul E. Ceruzzi is Curator of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. He is the author of A History of Modern Computing (second edition, MIT Press, 2003) and other books, and coeditor of The Internet and American Business (MIT Press, 2008).