HN Explorer

Ask PG/HN: Recommended reading on the history of technology

55 points by madamepsychosis ↗ HN
In the 'Are Software Patents Evil' essay, the line "one of my main hobbies is the history of technology" prompted me to ask: what is some recommended reading on the history of technology? I'm looking for something that takes about as broad a view as one of pg's essays - googling seems to give histories of very specific subsets of technology.

43 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 90.6 ms ] thread
nswanberg
I like this book, which describes who made what, and when: http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Technology-Earliest-D/dp... up until 1900. This book itself is compiled from a multi-volume set that, as far as I can tell, is no longer in print.

pg's suggestion is probably a little different--pick a subject that holds your intererest rather than slogging through the entire history (there are also a couple of technology-specific history books here): http://www.paulgraham.com/raq.html

random_coder
Neal Stephenson's novels work for me :)
sourc3
Cryptonomicon is my favorite so far! Glad I am not the only one who enjoys his writing.
computer
IBM and the Holocaust, to see how the rise of technology made the holocaust possible, and for the duality between business and ethics.
bountie
Check out "As We May Think", a legendary essay by Dr. Vannevar Bush in 1945. Bush was the Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development and "coordinated the activities of some six thousand leading American scientists in the application of science to warfare".

The topic of his essay was: what should scientists do for the benefit of society now that the war is over?

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-ma...

gregw134
Seconded. His imagination of a computer-like workstation, cobbled together from 1940's technology, was the most fascinating thing I've read all year.
chl
Two excellent technology history books I read in 2013 are _Dream Machine_ by M. Mitchell Waldrop and _Computing in the Middle Ages_ by Severo Ornstein.

_Dream Machine_ in particular tied together many strands that I had previously explored separately; it's a far-ranging, incredibly well-researched work that covers the development of interactive (and, eventually, personal & networked) computing from its origins at MIT's Whirlwind and Lincoln projects, leading, in big part thanks to J.C.R. Licklider's long-term research (management) vision, to the development of the ARPANET, and, maybe even more importantly, the formation of an "ARPA community", where many of the big ideas were first brought to reality and explored in depth (at BBN, SRI, Utah, PARC &c.).

All in all, it's probably the best history of computing-as-we-know-it-today and a clear recommendation for anyone with just the slightest interest in the idea history of the field.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Dream-Machine-Licklider-Revolution...

_Computing in the Middle Ages_ is a very personal account, supplying the critically important perspective of someone actually working in the trenches in the time-frame covered by _Dream Machine_.

Severo Ornstein co-designed the ARPANET "Interface Message Processors", essentially the first routers. It's also a wonderful history of the LINC (by Wesley Clark et al.), a remarkable (and remarkably forgotten) machine and the direct philosophical fore-runner of all "personal computers".

http://www.amazon.com/Computing-Middle-Ages-Trenches-1955-19...

keithwarren
Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

It is a great book written by one of the great computer scientists of our time. It tracks the evolution of code and computing from morse code and braille on to number systems, early processors and even into how processors handle this information. When I hire someone for nearly any position, I buy them this book.

*Don't let the title fool you, this is not some discussion about high level languages, this is the down and dirty stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Softwa...

rhizome31
Code is a great book but it's rather a fictional story explaining how computers work than a history book. It does contain a lot of interesting historical elements though. Definitely a recommended read but I'm not sure it's really what the OP if after here.
phillmv
This is a little broader than what you're asking but this year I read two books that have really affected my thinking and I think everyone should read.

First one up is Command and Control - which is a history of american nuclear weapons/nuclear weapon accidents. It spends most of its time building a narrative around a single major incident but the meaty sections are all about how the technology was invented and deployed and it's a gripping read.

Second one - just wrapping it up now - is The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, which is a history of the shipping container. It sorta reads mostly as a pop econ/biz biography of Malcom McLean but it's really about the power of technology to reshape how we live.

acqq
I've really enjoyed reading

http://www.amazon.com/How-Got-Here-Irreverent-Technology/dp/...

"How We Got Here: A Slightly Irreverent History of Technology and Markets" by Andy Kessler

"Expanding on themes first raised in his tour de force, Running Money, Andy Kessler unpacks the entire history of Silicon Valley and Wall Street, from the Industrial Revolution to computers, communications, money, gold and stock markets. These stories cut (by an unscrupulous editor) from the original manuscript were intended as a primer on the ways in which new technologies develop from unprofitable curiosities to essential investments. Indeed, How We Got Here is the book Kessler wishes someone had handed him on his first day as a freshman engineering student at Cornell or on the day he started on Wall Street. This book connects the dots through history to how we got to where we are today."

davidw
This is a pretty good book; it's best on the 80ies, early 90ies and the 'PC' era, so it's more of a niche compared with the "history of technology" taken as a whole. But that makes it more thorough in what it covers. It's also quite entertaining and has some smart things to say about how to avoid major screw-ups:

http://www.amazon.com/In-Search-Stupidity-Marketing-Disaster...

stcredzero
Dealers of Lightning

It's important to know how far in advance stuff in research labs can be from everyday life. The trappings of the computerized office of the mid 90's were bouncing around Xerox PARC in the 70's.

jseliger
I'm not Paul Graham, but Joel Mokyr's book's are all very interesting: http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&tag=thstsst-20&linkCode=as2&... . Start with The Lever of Athena but really it's hard to go wrong with any of them.

Mokyr's books aren't exactly about the history of technology: they're at the intersection of economics, technology, and politics.

Another good choice: Steven Berlin Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From.

meatsock
where wizards stay up late isbn 9780684832678

weaving the web by berners-lee 006251587X

the master switch - tim wu

the soul of a new machine - tracy kidder 9780316491976

dealers of lightning

projectileboy
I don't think it's exactly what you're looking for, but you might enjoy James Burke's series Connections, as well as The Day the Universe Changed. It's always fun to watch Burke connect the dots from technical advances to historical events.
sideb0ard
Howard Rheingold's 'Tools for Thought: The History and Future of Mind-Expanding Technology' - covers George Boole, Charles Babbage, Alan Turing, John Von Neumann

Jon Gernter's 'The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation' - very cool story about the formation of Bell Labs and covers the Transistor, Satellite comms, the laser, and a ton of other stuff up till, but not disappointingly not including Unix.

John Markoff's 'What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry' - what is says!

Ted Nelson's 'Geeks Bearing Gifts' (or any of his YouTube Computers For Cynics videos) - awesome, curmudgeonly alternative (but accurate) version of computer history.

Michael A. Hiltzik's 'Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age' - as someone else mentioned, really great history

m_d
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Stephen Levy (http://amzn.com/1449388396)

A great look at the people involved in the early years of personal computing, including Stallman, Gates, Wozniak, etc. Apart from the technology, Levy discusses the basic philosophy and motivations of the personalities involved.

quinndupont
Some of the academic authors for the history of computers in particular would be Mahoney, Cerruzi, Aspray, Abbate, & Campbell-Kelly. For history of technology in general look up authors publishing in Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), including oldies like Lynne White, etc.
kingkilr
I highly reccomend "The Machine in America: A Social History of Technology" and "Technology in Postwar America: A History", both by Carroll Pursell.