Ask HN: Greatest books about the history of computing

The Dream Machine is giving me a great appreciation of the time-sharing revolution and ARPANET. What else should I read? Any timeframe or topic is OK, so long as it's strongly related to the history of computing.

1. syndicatedjelly ◴[16 Nov 24 16:19 UTC] No.42157136[source]▶

>>42157034 (OP) #

Quick plug for my HN book club on that book! We just finished Ch 1 of The Dream Machine, if you’re interested in joining.

https://discord.gg/9tgxgg3J

2. jonjacky ◴[16 Nov 24 16:57 UTC] No.42157407[source]▶

>>42157034 (OP) #

The standard textbooks by historians are:

A History of Modern Computing by Paul Ceruzzi

There is a completely rewritten version of this with an additional author:

A New History of Modern Computing by Thomas Haigh and Paul Ceruzzi

Also:

Computer: A History of the Information Machine by Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray

There are good books by journalists and popular writers. Favorites on HN are:

The Dream Machine -- you are already reading this. Also:

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy

Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet by Katie Hafner and Matthey Lyon

These and many many other books are recomended and described in this HN thread from a few years ago:

Ask HN: Computer Science/History Books? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22692281

replies(1): >>42164332 #

3. helph67 ◴[16 Nov 24 20:53 UTC] No.42159222[source]▶

>>42157034 (OP) #

Fire in the Valley - The making of the Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger & Michael Swaine, published by McGraw Hill, 2000 463 pages. Excellent reference telling many of the P.C stories.

4. aristofun ◴[16 Nov 24 21:03 UTC] No.42159315[source]▶

>>42157034 (OP) #

Dealers of lightning about Xerox parc is quite impressive

5. tacostakohashi ◴[16 Nov 24 21:05 UTC] No.42159322[source]▶

>>42157034 (OP) #

A Quarter Century of UNIX

Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier

6. pasttense01 ◴[17 Nov 24 02:45 UTC] No.42161579[source]▶

>>42157034 (OP) #

Tracy Kidder.The Soul of a New Machine.

About the development of the Data General new minicomputer. Published 1982.

7. brudgers ◴[17 Nov 24 04:05 UTC] No.42161884[source]▶

>>42157034 (OP) #

The Art of Computer Programming contains a lot of computing history.

Also it is a lot of computing history.

8. BOOSTERHIDROGEN ◴[17 Nov 24 14:25 UTC] No.42164332[source]▶

>>42157407 #

Are there any books about the semiconductor industry?

9. croo ◴[17 Nov 24 15:54 UTC] No.42164813[source]▶

>>42157034 (OP) #

Singh Simon - Code book is an excellent and fantastic read about the history of cryptography and provide insights of what really drove technical improvements in ww1 and 2.

10. netfortius ◴[17 Nov 24 16:57 UTC] No.42165239[source]▶

>>42157034 (OP) #

Brian Kernighan's newly released "UNIX: A History and a Memoir"

11. bwh2 ◴[17 Nov 24 18:59 UTC] No.42166124[source]▶

>>42157034 (OP) #

Two good ones: 1) Where Wizards Stay Up Late and 2) How the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone

12. wilburm ◴[17 Nov 24 23:40 UTC] No.42168353[source]▶

>>42157034 (OP) #

Turing’s Cathedral

The Universal Computer

Computer Connections: https://computerhistory.org/blog/computer-history-museum-lic...

13. dark__paladin ◴[18 Nov 24 06:19 UTC] No.42170191[source]▶