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Ask HN: Best computer history book for curious teenager?

17 points by Ecco ↗ HN
Hi there, I’d like to gift a computer history book to a curious geeky teenager. Ideally, the book would:

- Give some historical context, but focus on explaining how each technology works (e.g. it was invented in the 80s; here’s how a CD stores music)

- Be somewhat up to date (doesn’t stop in the 90s)

- Have many illustrations, including schemas to explain each technology

- Cover computer software, hardware and networking too

14 comments

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japhyr
Unix: A History and a Memoir, by Kernighan was a good quick read. It's probably more history than technical information, however the material that's presented is still in use across many unix-based systems. I came away from this book with a much better sense of the ideas behind many of the tools I've used all my life in terminal environments across multiple systems.

https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~bwk/memoir.html

cdzm
I can't think of examples that match all your criteria. Some books that do come to mind:

* Linus Torvalds and David Diamond - Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary (2002) A personal account of the history of Linux. Not many technical details nor (any?) illustrations.

* Katie Hafner, Mathew Lyon - Where Wizards stay up Late A history of the internet. Some technical details, but not a lot. Not many diagrams, and it does stop in the 90s. Covers the internet and therefore networking

* Noam Nisan, Shimon Schocken - The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles The Elements of Computing systems Not a lot of history, but does describe how computers work in a bottom up fashion. Includes diagrams. No networking. It is more of a project book because as you can "build along" a computer, starting from nand gates. Covers both hardware and software.

theodpHN
Someone else already mentioned, "Hackers" by Steven Levy, which was great. Levy's "Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer that Changed Everything" was also a vey good read (and only $4.99 for Kindle edition!).

https://www.amazon.com/Insanely-Great-Macintosh-Computer-Eve...

And not sure how well it's aged, but I remember "Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date" was a fun, breezy read.

https://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Empires-Silicon-Millions-C...

timal
Fire in the Valley is the best computer history book I've read. It covers the very early history of the Altair (Hardware) and Bill Gates writing a version of Basic for it (Software). I would say it stops in the 90s since I've only read the first edition but apparently there are two more editions out now that cover events through Steve Jobs death. I think I'm due for a rereading.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1937785769/ref=dp_ob_neva_mob...

marttt
"The Cukoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage" [1] by Clifford Stoll. The author's first-person account on tracking down a computer hacker as a sysadmin. This 1989 book was definitely influential to me as a teenager; first time close encounter with the idea that the world of computer networks can also be "scary".

@CliffStoll is also on HN. Fond memories; thanks again for writing that book!

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg_(book)

mikewarot
Not quite what you're asking for, but if you can find a copy that doesn't break the bank, "Computer Lib/Dream Machines" by Ted Nelson is fascinating stuff.
Rochus
A new history of modern computing, by Thomas Haigh and Paul E. Ceruzzi, The MIT Press, 2021