Summer reading for historians of computing -- your suggestions
Hello SIGCIS members, Please consider helping the community sharpen its engagement with new ideas. Back in graduate school I read feverishly in labor history, business history, history of technology social history, organizational sociology, etc in preparation for my oral examinations. My classes covered still more eclectic topics, ranging from a "greatest hits" of literary theory to nonparametric methods. Over the ten years since I physically left Penn I've been focused on an ever more specialized set of literatures, primarily the burgeoning history of computing field, which I know in ever more depth. In general I've also been doing more writing and less reading. This is probably pretty typical of the intellectual career of a tenured academic, expressed in the cliché that we come to know "more and more about less and less," though as I don't have an opportunity to teach any courses related to my interests it may be a little more extreme. Last summer I finally read Latour's _Science in Action_ properly for the first time (lying outside a dacha on the outskirts of Kiev) and enjoyed it rather more than I'd expected. That hardly puts me on the cutting edge of intellectual fashion, but it did remind me of the pleasure of reading a really nicely constructed and provocative book of general interest. So, putting these two thoughts together I wondered what new work of equally broad interest might have appeared over the past ten years. I'm thinking of books of implicit rather than explicit relevance to the history of computing, either offering new intellectual perspectives or just serving as models of craft. Scholarly books that could be read for pleasure rather than duty. I'm sure suggestions would be of general interest to the SIGCIS community, as it heads to the beaches, lakes, mountains and dachas of the world. Suggestions should include the book and a short description of why it deserve to be read widely by historians of computing. I'd like to accumulate suggestions on our website, as comments to a blog post: http://www.sigcis.org/node/271. We just upgraded our site, so it's easy to post comments using our new WYSIWIG editor. You do need to login first, but accounts are free and you have probably already registered (if you forgot your password it can be reset online). While you are there, please also explore our latest posts from bloggers including Chris McDonald, Marie Hicks and Dave Walden. http://www.sigcis.org/blog However you could also just email a reply to the list if you have trouble logging in. Tom P.S. 64 people already liked us on Facebook -- go to http://www.facebook.com/SIGCIS to be the 65th.
That's a great question, Tom. The obvious suggestion that occurs to me, though I imagine list readers know all about it already, is James Gleick's *The Information*, a wide ranging tour of information as idea in linguistics, logic, telecommunications, cryptography, quantum theory, and genetics. Oh, and the history of computing. Less obviously tied to the history of computing but still great summer (or fall, or spring, or winter) reading for people with interests both historical and scientific, is the burgeoning field of "big history". David Christian's *Maps of Time* is to me the most impressive synthesis, but McNeill & McNeill's The Human Web and Daniel Lord Smail's *On Deep History & The Brain* are also worthwhile. best, Rob Rob MacDougall Assistant Professor, Department of History Associate Director, Centre for American Studies University of Western Ontario London, Ontario N6A 5C2 CANADA 519-661-2111 +85305 On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 3:36 PM, Thomas Haigh <thaigh@computer.org> wrote:
Hello SIGCIS members,
Please consider helping the community sharpen its engagement with new ideas. Back in graduate school I read feverishly in labor history, business history, history of technology social history, organizational sociology, etc in preparation for my oral examinations. My classes covered still more eclectic topics, ranging from a "greatest hits" of literary theory to nonparametric methods. Over the ten years since I physically left Penn I've been focused on an ever more specialized set of literatures, primarily the burgeoning history of computing field, which I know in ever more depth. In general I've also been doing more writing and less reading. This is probably pretty typical of the intellectual career of a tenured academic, expressed in the cliché that we come to know "more and more about less and less," though as I don't have an opportunity to teach any courses related to my interests it may be a little more extreme.
Last summer I finally read Latour's _Science in Action_ properly for the first time (lying outside a dacha on the outskirts of Kiev) and enjoyed it rather more than I'd expected. That hardly puts me on the cutting edge of intellectual fashion, but it did remind me of the pleasure of reading a really nicely constructed and provocative book of general interest.
So, putting these two thoughts together I wondered what new work of equally broad interest might have appeared over the past ten years. I'm thinking of books of implicit rather than explicit relevance to the history of computing, either offering new intellectual perspectives or just serving as models of craft. Scholarly books that could be read for pleasure rather than duty. I'm sure suggestions would be of general interest to the SIGCIS community, as it heads to the beaches, lakes, mountains and dachas of the world.
Suggestions should include the book and a short description of why it deserve to be read widely by historians of computing.
I'd like to accumulate suggestions on our website, as comments to a blog post: http://www.sigcis.org/node/271. We just upgraded our site, so it's easy to post comments using our new WYSIWIG editor. You do need to login first, but accounts are free and you have probably already registered (if you forgot your password it can be reset online). While you are there, please also explore our latest posts from bloggers including Chris McDonald, Marie Hicks and Dave Walden. http://www.sigcis.org/blog
However you could also just email a reply to the list if you have trouble logging in.
Tom
P.S. 64 people already liked us on Facebook -- go to http://www.facebook.com/SIGCIS to be the 65th.
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
Sherry Turkle's work is an outstanding example of the kind of reading that is both pleasurable and sets of Roman candles in your mind. Obviously, "Alone Together" is the most recent but I think earlier works ("Second Self," "Life on the Screen," and "SImulation and Its Discontents") continue to reward readers. Debbie Douglas On Jul 13, 2011, at 3:57 PM, Rob MacDougall wrote:
That's a great question, Tom.
The obvious suggestion that occurs to me, though I imagine list readers know all about it already, is James Gleick's The Information, a wide ranging tour of information as idea in linguistics, logic, telecommunications, cryptography, quantum theory, and genetics. Oh, and the history of computing.
Less obviously tied to the history of computing but still great summer (or fall, or spring, or winter) reading for people with interests both historical and scientific, is the burgeoning field of "big history". David Christian's Maps of Time is to me the most impressive synthesis, but McNeill & McNeill's The Human Web and Daniel Lord Smail's On Deep History & The Brain are also worthwhile.
best, Rob
Rob MacDougall Assistant Professor, Department of History Associate Director, Centre for American Studies University of Western Ontario London, Ontario N6A 5C2 CANADA 519-661-2111 +85305
On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 3:36 PM, Thomas Haigh <thaigh@computer.org> wrote: Hello SIGCIS members,
Please consider helping the community sharpen its engagement with new ideas. Back in graduate school I read feverishly in labor history, business history, history of technology social history, organizational sociology, etc in preparation for my oral examinations. My classes covered still more eclectic topics, ranging from a "greatest hits" of literary theory to nonparametric methods. Over the ten years since I physically left Penn I've been focused on an ever more specialized set of literatures, primarily the burgeoning history of computing field, which I know in ever more depth. In general I've also been doing more writing and less reading. This is probably pretty typical of the intellectual career of a tenured academic, expressed in the cliché that we come to know "more and more about less and less," though as I don't have an opportunity to teach any courses related to my interests it may be a little more extreme.
Last summer I finally read Latour's _Science in Action_ properly for the first time (lying outside a dacha on the outskirts of Kiev) and enjoyed it rather more than I'd expected. That hardly puts me on the cutting edge of intellectual fashion, but it did remind me of the pleasure of reading a really nicely constructed and provocative book of general interest.
So, putting these two thoughts together I wondered what new work of equally broad interest might have appeared over the past ten years. I'm thinking of books of implicit rather than explicit relevance to the history of computing, either offering new intellectual perspectives or just serving as models of craft. Scholarly books that could be read for pleasure rather than duty. I'm sure suggestions would be of general interest to the SIGCIS community, as it heads to the beaches, lakes, mountains and dachas of the world.
Suggestions should include the book and a short description of why it deserve to be read widely by historians of computing.
I'd like to accumulate suggestions on our website, as comments to a blog post: http://www.sigcis.org/node/271. We just upgraded our site, so it's easy to post comments using our new WYSIWIG editor. You do need to login first, but accounts are free and you have probably already registered (if you forgot your password it can be reset online). While you are there, please also explore our latest posts from bloggers including Chris McDonald, Marie Hicks and Dave Walden. http://www.sigcis.org/blog
However you could also just email a reply to the list if you have trouble logging in.
Tom
P.S. 64 people already liked us on Facebook -- go to http://www.facebook.com/SIGCIS to be the 65th.
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. Curator of Science and Technology MIT Museum, N51-209 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 ddouglas@mit.edu • 617-253-1766 phone • 617-253-8994 fax http://web.mit.edu/museum • http://webmuseum.mit.edu • http://museum.mit.edu/150
Tom I would say that the most informative author that I have read in the last two years beyond LaTour who was also new to me and Henry Adams to whom I return regularly, was Immanuel Wallerstein. I read all of his World Systems Theory books. I found them fascinating and engaging, though they always left me with the feeling that he was overreaching. David _______________ David Alan Grier Sent from my iPhone On Jul 13, 2011, at 3:36 PM, "Thomas Haigh" <thaigh@computer.org> wrote:
Hello SIGCIS members,
Please consider helping the community sharpen its engagement with new ideas. Back in graduate school I read feverishly in labor history, business history, history of technology social history, organizational sociology, etc in preparation for my oral examinations. My classes covered still more eclectic topics, ranging from a "greatest hits" of literary theory to nonparametric methods. Over the ten years since I physically left Penn I've been focused on an ever more specialized set of literatures, primarily the burgeoning history of computing field, which I know in ever more depth. In general I've also been doing more writing and less reading. This is probably pretty typical of the intellectual career of a tenured academic, expressed in the cliché that we come to know "more and more about less and less," though as I don't have an opportunity to teach any courses related to my interests it may be a little more extreme.
Last summer I finally read Latour's _Science in Action_ properly for the first time (lying outside a dacha on the outskirts of Kiev) and enjoyed it rather more than I'd expected. That hardly puts me on the cutting edge of intellectual fashion, but it did remind me of the pleasure of reading a really nicely constructed and provocative book of general interest.
So, putting these two thoughts together I wondered what new work of equally broad interest might have appeared over the past ten years. I'm thinking of books of implicit rather than explicit relevance to the history of computing, either offering new intellectual perspectives or just serving as models of craft. Scholarly books that could be read for pleasure rather than duty. I'm sure suggestions would be of general interest to the SIGCIS community, as it heads to the beaches, lakes, mountains and dachas of the world.
Suggestions should include the book and a short description of why it deserve to be read widely by historians of computing.
I'd like to accumulate suggestions on our website, as comments to a blog post: http://www.sigcis.org/node/271. We just upgraded our site, so it's easy to post comments using our new WYSIWIG editor. You do need to login first, but accounts are free and you have probably already registered (if you forgot your password it can be reset online). While you are there, please also explore our latest posts from bloggers including Chris McDonald, Marie Hicks and Dave Walden. http://www.sigcis.org/blog
However you could also just email a reply to the list if you have trouble logging in.
Tom
P.S. 64 people already liked us on Facebook -- go to http://www.facebook.com/SIGCIS to be the 65th.
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
Hey Sigcis Members, I recently got turned onto John Dewey's "The Public and Its Problems," which dates to 1927. A pleasure to read, features a kind of quasi-"networking" theory of modern democracy towards the end, and also something that has been popping up in theoretical literature lately as some of the actor-network theorists and thing theorists turn towards American pragmatism. Markus Krajewski's recently published German-language book "Der Diener," a history of the figure of the servant, from 18th c. literature to contemporary notions of computer servers, is also a bizarre and fascinating invitation to reconsider how we think about computation and culture. Best, Bernie Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan bernard@u.northwestern.edu Graduate Fellow, Mediale Historiographien, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar Doctoral Candidate, Screen Cultures, Northwestern University On Jul 14, 2011, at 3:34 AM, David Alan Grier wrote:
Tom I would say that the most informative author that I have read in the last two years beyond LaTour who was also new to me and Henry Adams to whom I return regularly, was Immanuel Wallerstein. I read all of his World Systems Theory books. I found them fascinating and engaging, though they always left me with the feeling that he was overreaching.
David _______________ David Alan Grier Sent from my iPhone
On Jul 13, 2011, at 3:36 PM, "Thomas Haigh" <thaigh@computer.org> wrote:
Hello SIGCIS members,
Please consider helping the community sharpen its engagement with new ideas. Back in graduate school I read feverishly in labor history, business history, history of technology social history, organizational sociology, etc in preparation for my oral examinations. My classes covered still more eclectic topics, ranging from a "greatest hits" of literary theory to nonparametric methods. Over the ten years since I physically left Penn I've been focused on an ever more specialized set of literatures, primarily the burgeoning history of computing field, which I know in ever more depth. In general I've also been doing more writing and less reading. This is probably pretty typical of the intellectual career of a tenured academic, expressed in the cliché that we come to know "more and more about less and less," though as I don't have an opportunity to teach any courses related to my interests it may be a little more extreme.
Last summer I finally read Latour's _Science in Action_ properly for the first time (lying outside a dacha on the outskirts of Kiev) and enjoyed it rather more than I'd expected. That hardly puts me on the cutting edge of intellectual fashion, but it did remind me of the pleasure of reading a really nicely constructed and provocative book of general interest.
So, putting these two thoughts together I wondered what new work of equally broad interest might have appeared over the past ten years. I'm thinking of books of implicit rather than explicit relevance to the history of computing, either offering new intellectual perspectives or just serving as models of craft. Scholarly books that could be read for pleasure rather than duty. I'm sure suggestions would be of general interest to the SIGCIS community, as it heads to the beaches, lakes, mountains and dachas of the world.
Suggestions should include the book and a short description of why it deserve to be read widely by historians of computing.
I'd like to accumulate suggestions on our website, as comments to a blog post: http://www.sigcis.org/node/271. We just upgraded our site, so it's easy to post comments using our new WYSIWIG editor. You do need to login first, but accounts are free and you have probably already registered (if you forgot your password it can be reset online). While you are there, please also explore our latest posts from bloggers including Chris McDonald, Marie Hicks and Dave Walden. http://www.sigcis.org/blog
However you could also just email a reply to the list if you have trouble logging in.
Tom
P.S. 64 people already liked us on Facebook -- go to http://www.facebook.com/SIGCIS to be the 65th.
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
This past year, I taught a required semester-long course for our doctoral students in information studies on things they should know from other areas of humanistic and social study of science and technology to prepare them to be good scholars in information studies. Of course, history is just one area within information studies, but I think there is value for historians to know this material. Probably most of you are already familiar with many of these books. Below is the list of the books we read in the class (yes, I work the students hard!). -Bill ******** Required Readings Wiebe Bijker et al., ed., The Social Construction of Technological Systems (MIT, 1989) Andy Clark, Mindware (Oxford, 2000) Ruth Schwartz Cowan, More Work for Mother (Basic Books, 1989) Michael Crotty, The Foundations of Social Research (Sage, 1998) Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory (Minnesota, 3rd ed., 2008) Peter Godfrey-Smith, Theory and Reality (Chicago, 2003) Karin Knorr-Cetina, Epistemic Cultures (Harvard, 1999) Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago, 3rd ed., 1996) David Noble, Forces of Production (Oxford, 1986) Edward Tenner, Why Things Bite Back (Vintage, 1997) P.E. Vermaas et al., ed., Philosophy and Design (Springer, 2009) Walter Vincenti, What Engineers Know and How They Know It (Johns Hopkins, 1993) Geoff Walsham, “The Emergence of Interpretivism in IS Research,” Information Systems Research (2001) 6: 4, 376-394. Available online at http://gkmc.utah.edu/7910F/papers/ISR%20emergence%20of%20interpretivism%20in... . On Jul 13, 2011, at 1:36 PM, Thomas Haigh wrote:
Hello SIGCIS members,
Please consider helping the community sharpen its engagement with new ideas. Back in graduate school I read feverishly in labor history, business history, history of technology social history, organizational sociology, etc in preparation for my oral examinations. My classes covered still more eclectic topics, ranging from a "greatest hits" of literary theory to nonparametric methods. Over the ten years since I physically left Penn I've been focused on an ever more specialized set of literatures, primarily the burgeoning history of computing field, which I know in ever more depth. In general I've also been doing more writing and less reading. This is probably pretty typical of the intellectual career of a tenured academic, expressed in the cliché that we come to know "more and more about less and less," though as I don't have an opportunity to teach any courses related to my interests it may be a little more extreme.
Last summer I finally read Latour's _Science in Action_ properly for the first time (lying outside a dacha on the outskirts of Kiev) and enjoyed it rather more than I'd expected. That hardly puts me on the cutting edge of intellectual fashion, but it did remind me of the pleasure of reading a really nicely constructed and provocative book of general interest.
So, putting these two thoughts together I wondered what new work of equally broad interest might have appeared over the past ten years. I'm thinking of books of implicit rather than explicit relevance to the history of computing, either offering new intellectual perspectives or just serving as models of craft. Scholarly books that could be read for pleasure rather than duty. I'm sure suggestions would be of general interest to the SIGCIS community, as it heads to the beaches, lakes, mountains and dachas of the world.
Suggestions should include the book and a short description of why it deserve to be read widely by historians of computing.
I'd like to accumulate suggestions on our website, as comments to a blog post: http://www.sigcis.org/node/271. We just upgraded our site, so it's easy to post comments using our new WYSIWIG editor. You do need to login first, but accounts are free and you have probably already registered (if you forgot your password it can be reset online). While you are there, please also explore our latest posts from bloggers including Chris McDonald, Marie Hicks and Dave Walden. http://www.sigcis.org/blog
However you could also just email a reply to the list if you have trouble logging in.
Tom
P.S. 64 people already liked us on Facebook -- go to http://www.facebook.com/SIGCIS to be the 65th.
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
participants (6)
-
Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan -
Bill Aspray -
David Alan Grier -
Deborah Douglas -
Rob MacDougall -
Thomas Haigh