Dedicated to SIGCIS: A New History of Modern Computing
Hello SIGCIS, Im very happy to be able to tell you that MIT Press has now published A New History of Modern Computing, my collaboration with Paul Ceruzzi to produce a replacement for his 1998 classic A History of Modern Computing. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/new-history-modern-computing MIT has produced a handsome, oversized book with plenty of space to see the detail in the many pictures. Gerado Con Diaz blurbed it as follows: "A New History of Modern Computing is an instant classicessential to historians, curators, and interdisciplinary scholars in information and media studies. Its integrated analysis of usage and technological change is an impressive feat and a real joy to read." Paul Edwards called it "indispensable" and Valérie Schafer called it "a must-read." The price is a fairly reasonable $40, which we lobbied hard for in the hope that this is a book people might buy to read for pleasure, rather than just because it is assigned for a college course. As you would expect from any book with both new and modern in the title, this one strives to be up to date. We have added in-depth coverage of topics neglected in previous overview histories such as communications, video games, digital media, smartphones, cloud computing, home computers, embedded microcontrollers, and operating systems that were given only glancing coverage in previous overview histories. The timeline comes right up to this year, with an epilogue covering the role of computer technology during our current apocalyptic moment. Weve made a particular effort to take serious the evolution of the PC through the 1980s and 1990s rather than just treating the original IBM model as the endpoint of the personal computing story. But we have also tried to come up to date in terms of reflecting much of the wonderful scholarship produced by this community in the two decades since Paul published his original book. Youll see that the book is dedicated to the SIGCIS community, from two former chairs. Even the discussion of topics that were given thorough treatment in the original book, such as chips, timesharing systems, and early personal computing, has been greatly deepened because of all the new work we were able to draw on. We hope that the endnotes and, in many cases, in-text mentions of this work will steer readers deeper into the intellectual life of our community. Id also like to thank the many members of the SIGCIS community who helped us by reading drafts of some or all of the book. That list include David Hemmendinger, Con Diaz, Alana Staiti, Marc Weber, Michael J. Halvorson, Paul McJones, David Brock, Troy Astarte, Tom Lean, Bradley Fidler, and Henry Lowood. Also, of course Bill Aspray and Tom Misa as the editors for the History of Computing Series. Many others helped us by answering specific questions, assisting with image permissions, or critiquing our initial plan for the books content and organization. Our most ambitious goal was to reconceptualize the history of electronic computing as a series of transitions, in which particular groups of users remake the computer to fit their needs. In each chapter the computer becomes something new, such as a scientific supertool, a real-time control system, a communications medium, or a publishing platform. This lets us integrate discussion of users, applications, hardware, and software into a succession of intertwined stories which, cumulatively, add up to an explanation of why and how the computer became a universal machine. I described that objective in more detail in a 2018 working paper called Finding a Story for the History of Computing. (https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/4553/Haigh_2018_Finding-a-Story_W orking-Paper-Series-SFB-1187-No-3_.pdf?sequence=10) In the present moment you may feel there is something inherently reactionary about imposing a grand narrative on computing, particularly when the effort is made by two white men both over the age of 45. Its hard, perhaps impossible, to further the widely repeated goal of decentering the computer when writing a book that tries to tell the story of said technology. Given that computing is now a part of pretty much everything, if you remove the thread of technology that holds the thing together you just finish up with the history of the world. But I am by temperament and training a slightly old fashioned social historian, and my teaching consists mostly of telling the story of the US in one survey class on the history of race and heath and another on the history of capitalism. So Im well aware of the tension between a narrative frame based around a technology and the broader themes of US history that have now become part of general discourse. I will say that we have tried to incorporate elements of social, cultural, and political history into the narrative as smoothly as possible in ways that will not seem gratuitous to readers who are there for the technical story. While still US-dominated, the narrative does reach out more than previously to the UK with occasional visits to France and some attention to Asia in the later part. That may not seem like enough to you, but it is more than you are going to get out of a book like The Innovators (which is by far the best-selling overview history of computing). As the saying goes, the problem with being in the middle of the road is that you get runover. The book is unlikely to produce the same excitement currently gathering around cultural history, critique of AI, or media theoretic approaches. But we were in a situation where the established overview histories were falling further and further behind the rapidly expanding and diversifying perspectives of our community. I hope that weve managed to close that gap, by produce something thats engaged with newer work and broader histories while also deeply engaged with the affordances and materiality of computer technology. A book like this gets essentially no marketing and is unlikely to be reviewed in mass-market outlets. So if you do like it, or at least like it more than The Innovators or Turings Cathedral which are the books that general readers are likely to stumble upon, please consider helping to get the word out by using your social media networks, putting a review up on Amazon, or just recommending it to a friend or family member who is looking for something to read. The same goes for almost all scholarly books, by the way. I sometimes think the most helpful thing we could do for each other as a community is to write a bunch of Amazon reviews and add references to Wikipedia entries. Best wishes, Tom
Congratulations Tom, and Paul. I look forward to reading this - and to spreading the word! Best wishes, Christine On Fri, 1 Oct 2021 at 17:26, <thomas.haigh@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello SIGCIS,
I’m very happy to be able to tell you that MIT Press has now published *A New History of Modern Computing*, my collaboration with Paul Ceruzzi to produce a replacement for his 1998 classic *A History of Modern Computing*. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/new-history-modern-computing MIT has produced a handsome, oversized book with plenty of space to see the detail in the many pictures. Gerado Con Diaz blurbed it as follows: "*A New History of Modern Computing* is an instant classic—essential to historians, curators, and interdisciplinary scholars in information and media studies. Its integrated analysis of usage and technological change is an impressive feat and a real joy to read." Paul Edwards called it "indispensable" and Valérie Schafer called it "a must-read." The price is a fairly reasonable $40, which we lobbied hard for in the hope that this is a book people might buy to read for pleasure, rather than just because it is assigned for a college course.
As you would expect from any book with both “new” and “modern” in the title, this one strives to be up to date. We have added in-depth coverage of topics neglected in previous overview histories such as communications, video games, digital media, smartphones, cloud computing, home computers, embedded microcontrollers, and operating systems that were given only glancing coverage in previous overview histories. The timeline comes right up to this year, with an epilogue covering the role of computer technology during our current apocalyptic moment. We’ve made a particular effort to take serious the evolution of the PC through the 1980s and 1990s rather than just treating the original IBM model as the endpoint of the personal computing story.
But we have also tried to come up to date in terms of reflecting much of the wonderful scholarship produced by this community in the two decades since Paul published his original book. You’ll see that the book is dedicated to the SIGCIS community, from two former chairs. Even the discussion of topics that were given thorough treatment in the original book, such as chips, timesharing systems, and early personal computing, has been greatly deepened because of all the new work we were able to draw on. We hope that the endnotes and, in many cases, in-text mentions of this work will steer readers deeper into the intellectual life of our community. I’d also like to thank the many members of the SIGCIS community who helped us by reading drafts of some or all of the book. That list include David Hemmendinger, Con Diaz, Alana Staiti, Marc Weber, Michael J. Halvorson, Paul McJones, David Brock, Troy Astarte, Tom Lean, Bradley Fidler, and Henry Lowood. Also, of course Bill Aspray and Tom Misa as the editors for the History of Computing Series. Many others helped us by answering specific questions, assisting with image permissions, or critiquing our initial plan for the book’s content and organization.
Our most ambitious goal was to reconceptualize the history of electronic computing as a series of transitions, in which particular groups of users remake the computer to fit their needs. In each chapter the computer becomes something new, such as a scientific supertool, a real-time control system, a communications medium, or a publishing platform. This lets us integrate discussion of users, applications, hardware, and software into a succession of intertwined stories which, cumulatively, add up to an explanation of why and how the computer became a universal machine. I described that objective in more detail in a 2018 working paper called “Finding a Story for the History of Computing.” ( https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/4553/Haigh_2018_Finding-a-Story_Wo...)
In the present moment you may feel there is something inherently reactionary about imposing a grand narrative on computing, particularly when the effort is made by two white men both over the age of 45. It’s hard, perhaps impossible, to further the widely repeated goal of “decentering the computer” when writing a book that tries to tell the story of said technology. Given that computing is now a part of pretty much everything, if you remove the thread of technology that holds the thing together you just finish up with the history of the world. But I am by temperament and training a slightly old fashioned social historian, and my teaching consists mostly of telling the story of the US in one survey class on the history of race and heath and another on the history of capitalism. So I’m well aware of the tension between a narrative frame based around a technology and the broader themes of US history that have now become part of general discourse. I will say that we have tried to incorporate elements of social, cultural, and political history into the narrative as smoothly as possible in ways that will not seem gratuitous to readers who are there for the technical story. While still US-dominated, the narrative does reach out more than previously to the UK with occasional visits to France and some attention to Asia in the later part. That may not seem like enough to you, but it is more than you are going to get out of a book like The Innovators (which is by far the best-selling overview history of computing).
As the saying goes, the problem with being in the middle of the road is that you get runover. The book is unlikely to produce the same excitement currently gathering around cultural history, critique of AI, or media theoretic approaches. But we were in a situation where the established overview histories were falling further and further behind the rapidly expanding and diversifying perspectives of our community. I hope that we’ve managed to close that gap, by produce something that’s engaged with newer work and broader histories while also deeply engaged with the affordances and materiality of computer technology.
A book like this gets essentially no marketing and is unlikely to be reviewed in mass-market outlets. So if you do like it, or at least like it more than *The Innovators* or *Turing’s Cathedral* which are the books that general readers are likely to stumble upon, please consider helping to get the word out by using your social media networks, putting a review up on Amazon, or just recommending it to a friend or family member who is looking for something to read. The same goes for almost all scholarly books, by the way. I sometimes think the most helpful thing we could do for each other as a community is to write a bunch of Amazon reviews and add references to Wikipedia entries.
Best wishes,
Tom
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
Congratulations. This looks amazing, and I look forward to reading it.
On Oct 1, 2021, at 12:31 PM, Christine Finn <christine.finn@gmail.com> wrote:
Congratulations Tom, and Paul.
I look forward to reading this - and to spreading the word!
Best wishes,
Christine
On Fri, 1 Oct 2021 at 17:26, <thomas.haigh@gmail.com <mailto:thomas.haigh@gmail.com>> wrote: Hello SIGCIS,
I’m very happy to be able to tell you that MIT Press has now published A New History of Modern Computing, my collaboration with Paul Ceruzzi to produce a replacement for his 1998 classic A History of Modern Computing. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/new-history-modern-computing <https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/new-history-modern-computing> MIT has produced a handsome, oversized book with plenty of space to see the detail in the many pictures. Gerado Con Diaz blurbed it as follows: "A New History of Modern Computing is an instant classic—essential to historians, curators, and interdisciplinary scholars in information and media studies. Its integrated analysis of usage and technological change is an impressive feat and a real joy to read." Paul Edwards called it "indispensable" and Valérie Schafer called it "a must-read." The price is a fairly reasonable $40, which we lobbied hard for in the hope that this is a book people might buy to read for pleasure, rather than just because it is assigned for a college course.
As you would expect from any book with both “new” and “modern” in the title, this one strives to be up to date. We have added in-depth coverage of topics neglected in previous overview histories such as communications, video games, digital media, smartphones, cloud computing, home computers, embedded microcontrollers, and operating systems that were given only glancing coverage in previous overview histories. The timeline comes right up to this year, with an epilogue covering the role of computer technology during our current apocalyptic moment. We’ve made a particular effort to take serious the evolution of the PC through the 1980s and 1990s rather than just treating the original IBM model as the endpoint of the personal computing story.
But we have also tried to come up to date in terms of reflecting much of the wonderful scholarship produced by this community in the two decades since Paul published his original book. You’ll see that the book is dedicated to the SIGCIS community, from two former chairs. Even the discussion of topics that were given thorough treatment in the original book, such as chips, timesharing systems, and early personal computing, has been greatly deepened because of all the new work we were able to draw on. We hope that the endnotes and, in many cases, in-text mentions of this work will steer readers deeper into the intellectual life of our community. I’d also like to thank the many members of the SIGCIS community who helped us by reading drafts of some or all of the book. That list include David Hemmendinger, Con Diaz, Alana Staiti, Marc Weber, Michael J. Halvorson, Paul McJones, David Brock, Troy Astarte, Tom Lean, Bradley Fidler, and Henry Lowood. Also, of course Bill Aspray and Tom Misa as the editors for the History of Computing Series. Many others helped us by answering specific questions, assisting with image permissions, or critiquing our initial plan for the book’s content and organization.
Our most ambitious goal was to reconceptualize the history of electronic computing as a series of transitions, in which particular groups of users remake the computer to fit their needs. In each chapter the computer becomes something new, such as a scientific supertool, a real-time control system, a communications medium, or a publishing platform. This lets us integrate discussion of users, applications, hardware, and software into a succession of intertwined stories which, cumulatively, add up to an explanation of why and how the computer became a universal machine. I described that objective in more detail in a 2018 working paper called “Finding a Story for the History of Computing.” (https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/4553/Haigh_2018_Finding-a-Story_Wo... <https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/4553/Haigh_2018_Finding-a-Story_Working-Paper-Series-SFB-1187-No-3_.pdf?sequence=10>)
In the present moment you may feel there is something inherently reactionary about imposing a grand narrative on computing, particularly when the effort is made by two white men both over the age of 45. It’s hard, perhaps impossible, to further the widely repeated goal of “decentering the computer” when writing a book that tries to tell the story of said technology. Given that computing is now a part of pretty much everything, if you remove the thread of technology that holds the thing together you just finish up with the history of the world. But I am by temperament and training a slightly old fashioned social historian, and my teaching consists mostly of telling the story of the US in one survey class on the history of race and heath and another on the history of capitalism. So I’m well aware of the tension between a narrative frame based around a technology and the broader themes of US history that have now become part of general discourse. I will say that we have tried to incorporate elements of social, cultural, and political history into the narrative as smoothly as possible in ways that will not seem gratuitous to readers who are there for the technical story. While still US-dominated, the narrative does reach out more than previously to the UK with occasional visits to France and some attention to Asia in the later part. That may not seem like enough to you, but it is more than you are going to get out of a book like The Innovators (which is by far the best-selling overview history of computing).
As the saying goes, the problem with being in the middle of the road is that you get runover. The book is unlikely to produce the same excitement currently gathering around cultural history, critique of AI, or media theoretic approaches. But we were in a situation where the established overview histories were falling further and further behind the rapidly expanding and diversifying perspectives of our community. I hope that we’ve managed to close that gap, by produce something that’s engaged with newer work and broader histories while also deeply engaged with the affordances and materiality of computer technology.
A book like this gets essentially no marketing and is unlikely to be reviewed in mass-market outlets. So if you do like it, or at least like it more than The Innovators or Turing’s Cathedral which are the books that general readers are likely to stumble upon, please consider helping to get the word out by using your social media networks, putting a review up on Amazon, or just recommending it to a friend or family member who is looking for something to read. The same goes for almost all scholarly books, by the way. I sometimes think the most helpful thing we could do for each other as a community is to write a bunch of Amazon reviews and add references to Wikipedia entries.
Best wishes,
Tom
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org <http://sigcis.org/>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ <http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/> and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org <http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org>_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
Dear Tom and Paul, congratulations on the publication of the new new book. Like for many of us, it has been a privilege for me to be present at tiny parts of your labour to create this work. Can't wait to see and feel and smell the thing in paper. Thanks also for the thoughtful introduction here. You are a master at second thoughts. Gerard ________________________________ Van: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> namens thomas.haigh@gmail.com <thomas.haigh@gmail.com> Verzonden: vrijdag 1 oktober 2021 18:26 Aan: members@sigcis.org <members@sigcis.org> Onderwerp: [SIGCIS-Members] Dedicated to SIGCIS: A New History of Modern Computing Hello SIGCIS, I’m very happy to be able to tell you that MIT Press has now published A New History of Modern Computing, my collaboration with Paul Ceruzzi to produce a replacement for his 1998 classic A History of Modern Computing. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/new-history-modern-computing<https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmitpress.mit.edu%2Fbooks%2Fnew-history-modern-computing&data=04%7C01%7Cg.alberts%40uva.nl%7Caf15736a198741af551008d984f84641%7Ca0f1cacd618c4403b94576fb3d6874e5%7C1%7C1%7C637687024140113229%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=9eGFj8BUBXV1sJoS5TiA%2FvdA85UkOsOlD1UCGx0kdnU%3D&reserved=0> MIT has produced a handsome, oversized book with plenty of space to see the detail in the many pictures. Gerado Con Diaz blurbed it as follows: "A New History of Modern Computing is an instant classic—essential to historians, curators, and interdisciplinary scholars in information and media studies. Its integrated analysis of usage and technological change is an impressive feat and a real joy to read." Paul Edwards called it "indispensable" and Valérie Schafer called it "a must-read." The price is a fairly reasonable $40, which we lobbied hard for in the hope that this is a book people might buy to read for pleasure, rather than just because it is assigned for a college course. As you would expect from any book with both “new” and “modern” in the title, this one strives to be up to date. We have added in-depth coverage of topics neglected in previous overview histories such as communications, video games, digital media, smartphones, cloud computing, home computers, embedded microcontrollers, and operating systems that were given only glancing coverage in previous overview histories. The timeline comes right up to this year, with an epilogue covering the role of computer technology during our current apocalyptic moment. We’ve made a particular effort to take serious the evolution of the PC through the 1980s and 1990s rather than just treating the original IBM model as the endpoint of the personal computing story. But we have also tried to come up to date in terms of reflecting much of the wonderful scholarship produced by this community in the two decades since Paul published his original book. You’ll see that the book is dedicated to the SIGCIS community, from two former chairs. Even the discussion of topics that were given thorough treatment in the original book, such as chips, timesharing systems, and early personal computing, has been greatly deepened because of all the new work we were able to draw on. We hope that the endnotes and, in many cases, in-text mentions of this work will steer readers deeper into the intellectual life of our community. I’d also like to thank the many members of the SIGCIS community who helped us by reading drafts of some or all of the book. That list include David Hemmendinger, Con Diaz, Alana Staiti, Marc Weber, Michael J. Halvorson, Paul McJones, David Brock, Troy Astarte, Tom Lean, Bradley Fidler, and Henry Lowood. Also, of course Bill Aspray and Tom Misa as the editors for the History of Computing Series. Many others helped us by answering specific questions, assisting with image permissions, or critiquing our initial plan for the book’s content and organization. Our most ambitious goal was to reconceptualize the history of electronic computing as a series of transitions, in which particular groups of users remake the computer to fit their needs. In each chapter the computer becomes something new, such as a scientific supertool, a real-time control system, a communications medium, or a publishing platform. This lets us integrate discussion of users, applications, hardware, and software into a succession of intertwined stories which, cumulatively, add up to an explanation of why and how the computer became a universal machine. I described that objective in more detail in a 2018 working paper called “Finding a Story for the History of Computing.” (https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/4553/Haigh_2018_Finding-a-Story_Working-Paper-Series-SFB-1187-No-3_.pdf?sequence=10<https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmediarep.org%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2Fdoc%2F4553%2FHaigh_2018_Finding-a-Story_Working-Paper-Series-SFB-1187-No-3_.pdf%3Fsequence%3D10&data=04%7C01%7Cg.alberts%40uva.nl%7Caf15736a198741af551008d984f84641%7Ca0f1cacd618c4403b94576fb3d6874e5%7C1%7C1%7C637687024140123222%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=IvmiIXkapzZmgWX3HHVuzPAmkDyBx0VWGowwz3fQoMM%3D&reserved=0>) In the present moment you may feel there is something inherently reactionary about imposing a grand narrative on computing, particularly when the effort is made by two white men both over the age of 45. It’s hard, perhaps impossible, to further the widely repeated goal of “decentering the computer” when writing a book that tries to tell the story of said technology. Given that computing is now a part of pretty much everything, if you remove the thread of technology that holds the thing together you just finish up with the history of the world. But I am by temperament and training a slightly old fashioned social historian, and my teaching consists mostly of telling the story of the US in one survey class on the history of race and heath and another on the history of capitalism. So I’m well aware of the tension between a narrative frame based around a technology and the broader themes of US history that have now become part of general discourse. I will say that we have tried to incorporate elements of social, cultural, and political history into the narrative as smoothly as possible in ways that will not seem gratuitous to readers who are there for the technical story. While still US-dominated, the narrative does reach out more than previously to the UK with occasional visits to France and some attention to Asia in the later part. That may not seem like enough to you, but it is more than you are going to get out of a book like The Innovators (which is by far the best-selling overview history of computing). As the saying goes, the problem with being in the middle of the road is that you get runover. The book is unlikely to produce the same excitement currently gathering around cultural history, critique of AI, or media theoretic approaches. But we were in a situation where the established overview histories were falling further and further behind the rapidly expanding and diversifying perspectives of our community. I hope that we’ve managed to close that gap, by produce something that’s engaged with newer work and broader histories while also deeply engaged with the affordances and materiality of computer technology. A book like this gets essentially no marketing and is unlikely to be reviewed in mass-market outlets. So if you do like it, or at least like it more than The Innovators or Turing’s Cathedral which are the books that general readers are likely to stumble upon, please consider helping to get the word out by using your social media networks, putting a review up on Amazon, or just recommending it to a friend or family member who is looking for something to read. The same goes for almost all scholarly books, by the way. I sometimes think the most helpful thing we could do for each other as a community is to write a bunch of Amazon reviews and add references to Wikipedia entries. Best wishes, Tom
Dear Tom and Paul, Congratulations! This is terrific news! And Tom's classy introduction to the book has made it leap up to the top of my pile of books to read! Having read the works of both Tom and Paul before, I just can't wait to get my hands on this new book! Keep it coming! 'Best, -Ramesh “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.”- Prof. Albert Allen Bartlett --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramesh Subramanian, Ph.D. Gabriel Ferrucci Professor of Information Systems Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT 06511, USA Email: ramesh.subramanian@qu.edu Web: https://www.qu.edu/faculty-and-staff/ramesh-subramanian & Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School New Haven, CT 06511, USA Email: ramesh.subramanian@yale.edu Web: https://www.law.yale.edu/ramesh-subramanian Recent book: Mobile Technology and Social Transformations<https://www.routledge.com/Mobile-Technology-and-Social-Transformations-Access-to-Knowledge-in-Global/Felsberger-Subramanian/p/book/9780367545246>, Routledge, UK (2021) ________________________________ From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of thomas.haigh@gmail.com <thomas.haigh@gmail.com> Sent: Friday, October 1, 2021 12:26 PM To: members@sigcis.org <members@sigcis.org> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Dedicated to SIGCIS: A New History of Modern Computing CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not follow guidance, click links, or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Hello SIGCIS, I’m very happy to be able to tell you that MIT Press has now published A New History of Modern Computing, my collaboration with Paul Ceruzzi to produce a replacement for his 1998 classic A History of Modern Computing. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/new-history-modern-computing<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmitpress.mit.edu%2Fbooks%2Fnew-history-modern-computing&data=04%7C01%7Cramesh.subramanian%40quinnipiac.edu%7C3460cf5a7aa14e692b0d08d984f84258%7C0940985869fb4de9987990db22b52eaf%7C0%7C1%7C637687024104716684%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=a0K2biEHpHXZLhgNsyI%2Fy4OHFrVPHgKgWcd0GFJPxis%3D&reserved=0> MIT has produced a handsome, oversized book with plenty of space to see the detail in the many pictures. Gerado Con Diaz blurbed it as follows: "A New History of Modern Computing is an instant classic—essential to historians, curators, and interdisciplinary scholars in information and media studies. Its integrated analysis of usage and technological change is an impressive feat and a real joy to read." Paul Edwards called it "indispensable" and Valérie Schafer called it "a must-read." The price is a fairly reasonable $40, which we lobbied hard for in the hope that this is a book people might buy to read for pleasure, rather than just because it is assigned for a college course. As you would expect from any book with both “new” and “modern” in the title, this one strives to be up to date. We have added in-depth coverage of topics neglected in previous overview histories such as communications, video games, digital media, smartphones, cloud computing, home computers, embedded microcontrollers, and operating systems that were given only glancing coverage in previous overview histories. The timeline comes right up to this year, with an epilogue covering the role of computer technology during our current apocalyptic moment. We’ve made a particular effort to take serious the evolution of the PC through the 1980s and 1990s rather than just treating the original IBM model as the endpoint of the personal computing story. But we have also tried to come up to date in terms of reflecting much of the wonderful scholarship produced by this community in the two decades since Paul published his original book. You’ll see that the book is dedicated to the SIGCIS community, from two former chairs. Even the discussion of topics that were given thorough treatment in the original book, such as chips, timesharing systems, and early personal computing, has been greatly deepened because of all the new work we were able to draw on. We hope that the endnotes and, in many cases, in-text mentions of this work will steer readers deeper into the intellectual life of our community. I’d also like to thank the many members of the SIGCIS community who helped us by reading drafts of some or all of the book. That list include David Hemmendinger, Con Diaz, Alana Staiti, Marc Weber, Michael J. Halvorson, Paul McJones, David Brock, Troy Astarte, Tom Lean, Bradley Fidler, and Henry Lowood. Also, of course Bill Aspray and Tom Misa as the editors for the History of Computing Series. Many others helped us by answering specific questions, assisting with image permissions, or critiquing our initial plan for the book’s content and organization. Our most ambitious goal was to reconceptualize the history of electronic computing as a series of transitions, in which particular groups of users remake the computer to fit their needs. In each chapter the computer becomes something new, such as a scientific supertool, a real-time control system, a communications medium, or a publishing platform. This lets us integrate discussion of users, applications, hardware, and software into a succession of intertwined stories which, cumulatively, add up to an explanation of why and how the computer became a universal machine. I described that objective in more detail in a 2018 working paper called “Finding a Story for the History of Computing.” (https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/4553/Haigh_2018_Finding-a-Story_Working-Paper-Series-SFB-1187-No-3_.pdf?sequence=10<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmediarep.org%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2Fdoc%2F4553%2FHaigh_2018_Finding-a-Story_Working-Paper-Series-SFB-1187-No-3_.pdf%3Fsequence%3D10&data=04%7C01%7Cramesh.subramanian%40quinnipiac.edu%7C3460cf5a7aa14e692b0d08d984f84258%7C0940985869fb4de9987990db22b52eaf%7C0%7C1%7C637687024104726666%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=PHe2oquwXyjP3%2BnMTHBxOqfFAoN8e54DxVsEhV1dSjc%3D&reserved=0>) In the present moment you may feel there is something inherently reactionary about imposing a grand narrative on computing, particularly when the effort is made by two white men both over the age of 45. It’s hard, perhaps impossible, to further the widely repeated goal of “decentering the computer” when writing a book that tries to tell the story of said technology. Given that computing is now a part of pretty much everything, if you remove the thread of technology that holds the thing together you just finish up with the history of the world. But I am by temperament and training a slightly old fashioned social historian, and my teaching consists mostly of telling the story of the US in one survey class on the history of race and heath and another on the history of capitalism. So I’m well aware of the tension between a narrative frame based around a technology and the broader themes of US history that have now become part of general discourse. I will say that we have tried to incorporate elements of social, cultural, and political history into the narrative as smoothly as possible in ways that will not seem gratuitous to readers who are there for the technical story. While still US-dominated, the narrative does reach out more than previously to the UK with occasional visits to France and some attention to Asia in the later part. That may not seem like enough to you, but it is more than you are going to get out of a book like The Innovators (which is by far the best-selling overview history of computing). As the saying goes, the problem with being in the middle of the road is that you get runover. The book is unlikely to produce the same excitement currently gathering around cultural history, critique of AI, or media theoretic approaches. But we were in a situation where the established overview histories were falling further and further behind the rapidly expanding and diversifying perspectives of our community. I hope that we’ve managed to close that gap, by produce something that’s engaged with newer work and broader histories while also deeply engaged with the affordances and materiality of computer technology. A book like this gets essentially no marketing and is unlikely to be reviewed in mass-market outlets. So if you do like it, or at least like it more than The Innovators or Turing’s Cathedral which are the books that general readers are likely to stumble upon, please consider helping to get the word out by using your social media networks, putting a review up on Amazon, or just recommending it to a friend or family member who is looking for something to read. The same goes for almost all scholarly books, by the way. I sometimes think the most helpful thing we could do for each other as a community is to write a bunch of Amazon reviews and add references to Wikipedia entries. Best wishes, Tom
Dear Tom, and Paul: Congratulations! I am looking forward to reading your new book. I have the impression that it is a good complement to my book that was published a few months ago: Bruderer, Herbert: Milestones in Analog and Digital Computing, Springer Nature Switzerland AG, Cham, 3rd edition 2020, 2 volumes, 2113 pages, 715 illustrations, 151 tables, https://www.springer.com/de/book/9783030409739 All the best, Herbert Bruderer Informatik Seehaldenstrasse 26 Postfach 47 CH-9401 Rorschach Switzerland Telefon +41 71 855 77 11 ----Ursprüngliche Nachricht---- Von : thomas.haigh@gmail.com Datum : 01/10/2021 - 18:26 (MS) An : members@sigcis.org Betreff : [SIGCIS-Members] Dedicated to SIGCIS: A New History of Modern Computing p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0.0in; font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: Calibri , sans-serif; } a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { mso-style-priority: 99; color: rgb(5,99,193); text-decoration: underline; } span.EmailStyle17 { mso-style-type: personal-compose; font-family: Calibri , sans-serif; color: windowtext; } *.MsoChpDefault { mso-style-type: export-only; } div.WordSection1 { page: WordSection1; } Hello SIGCIS, I’m very happy to be able to tell you that MIT Press has now published A New History of Modern Computing, my collaboration with Paul Ceruzzi to produce a replacement for his 1998 classic A History of Modern Computing. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/new-history-modern-computing MIT has produced a handsome, oversized book with plenty of space to see the detail in the many pictures. Gerado Con Diaz blurbed it as follows: "A New History of Modern Computing is an instant classic—essential to historians, curators, and interdisciplinary scholars in information and media studies. Its integrated analysis of usage and technological change is an impressive feat and a real joy to read." Paul Edwards called it "indispensable" and Valérie Schafer called it "a must-read." The price is a fairly reasonable $40, which we lobbied hard for in the hope that this is a book people might buy to read for pleasure, rather than just because it is assigned for a college course. As you would expect from any book with both “new” and “modern” in the title, this one strives to be up to date. We have added in-depth coverage of topics neglected in previous overview histories such as communications, video games, digital media, smartphones, cloud computing, home computers, embedded microcontrollers, and operating systems that were given only glancing coverage in previous overview histories. The timeline comes right up to this year, with an epilogue covering the role of computer technology during our current apocalyptic moment. We’ve made a particular effort to take serious the evolution of the PC through the 1980s and 1990s rather than just treating the original IBM model as the endpoint of the personal computing story. But we have also tried to come up to date in terms of reflecting much of the wonderful scholarship produced by this community in the two decades since Paul published his original book. You’ll see that the book is dedicated to the SIGCIS community, from two former chairs. Even the discussion of topics that were given thorough treatment in the original book, such as chips, timesharing systems, and early personal computing, has been greatly deepened because of all the new work we were able to draw on. We hope that the endnotes and, in many cases, in-text mentions of this work will steer readers deeper into the intellectual life of our community. I’d also like to thank the many members of the SIGCIS community who helped us by reading drafts of some or all of the book. That list include David Hemmendinger, Con Diaz, Alana Staiti, Marc Weber, Michael J. Halvorson, Paul McJones, David Brock, Troy Astarte, Tom Lean, Bradley Fidler, and Henry Lowood. Also, of course Bill Aspray and Tom Misa as the editors for the History of Computing Series. Many others helped us by answering specific questions, assisting with image permissions, or critiquing our initial plan for the book’s content and organization. Our most ambitious goal was to reconceptualize the history of electronic computing as a series of transitions, in which particular groups of users remake the computer to fit their needs. In each chapter the computer becomes something new, such as a scientific supertool, a real-time control system, a communications medium, or a publishing platform. This lets us integrate discussion of users, applications, hardware, and software into a succession of intertwined stories which, cumulatively, add up to an explanation of why and how the computer became a universal machine. I described that objective in more detail in a 2018 working paper called “Finding a Story for the History of Computing.” (https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/4553/Haigh_2018_Finding-a-Story_Wo...) In the present moment you may feel there is something inherently reactionary about imposing a grand narrative on computing, particularly when the effort is made by two white men both over the age of 45. It’s hard, perhaps impossible, to further the widely repeated goal of “decentering the computer” when writing a book that tries to tell the story of said technology. Given that computing is now a part of pretty much everything, if you remove the thread of technology that holds the thing together you just finish up with the history of the world. But I am by temperament and training a slightly old fashioned social historian, and my teaching consists mostly of telling the story of the US in one survey class on the history of race and heath and another on the history of capitalism. So I’m well aware of the tension between a narrative frame based around a technology and the broader themes of US history that have now become part of general discourse. I will say that we have tried to incorporate elements of social, cultural, and political history into the narrative as smoothly as possible in ways that will not seem gratuitous to readers who are there for the technical story. While still US-dominated, the narrative does reach out more than previously to the UK with occasional visits to France and some attention to Asia in the later part. That may not seem like enough to you, but it is more than you are going to get out of a book like The Innovators (which is by far the best-selling overview history of computing). As the saying goes, the problem with being in the middle of the road is that you get runover. The book is unlikely to produce the same excitement currently gathering around cultural history, critique of AI, or media theoretic approaches. But we were in a situation where the established overview histories were falling further and further behind the rapidly expanding and diversifying perspectives of our community. I hope that we’ve managed to close that gap, by produce something that’s engaged with newer work and broader histories while also deeply engaged with the affordances and materiality of computer technology. A book like this gets essentially no marketing and is unlikely to be reviewed in mass-market outlets. So if you do like it, or at least like it more than The Innovators or Turing’s Cathedral which are the books that general readers are likely to stumble upon, please consider helping to get the word out by using your social media networks, putting a review up on Amazon, or just recommending it to a friend or family member who is looking for something to read. The same goes for almost all scholarly books, by the way. I sometimes think the most helpful thing we could do for each other as a community is to write a bunch of Amazon reviews and add references to Wikipedia entries. Best wishes, Tom
participants (6)
-
Christine Finn -
Gerard Alberts -
herbert.bruderer＠bluewin.ch -
Nabeel Siddiqui -
Subramanian, Ramesh Prof. -
thomas.haigh＠gmail.com