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A New History of Modern Computing
How the computer became universal.
Over the past fifty years, the computer has been transformed from a hulking scientific supertool and data processing workhorse, remote from the experiences of ordinary people, to a diverse family of devices that billions rely on to play games, shop, stream music and movies, communicate, and count their steps. In A New History of Modern Computing , Thomas Haigh and Paul Ceruzzi trace these changes. A comprehensive reimagining of Ceruzzi's A History of Modern Computing , this new volume uses each chapter to recount one such transformation, describing how a particular community of users and producers remade the computer into something new.
Haigh and Ceruzzi ground their accounts of these computing revolutions in the longer and deeper history of computing technology. They begin with the story of the 1945 ENIAC computer, which introduced the vocabulary of "programs" and "programming," and proceed through email, pocket calculators, personal computers, the World Wide Web, videogames, smart phones, and our current world of computers everywhere--in phones, cars, appliances, watches, and more. Finally, they consider the Tesla Model S as an object that simultaneously embodies many strands of computing.
Over the past fifty years, the computer has been transformed from a hulking scientific supertool and data processing workhorse, remote from the experiences of ordinary people, to a diverse family of devices that billions rely on to play games, shop, stream music and movies, communicate, and count their steps. In A New History of Modern Computing , Thomas Haigh and Paul Ceruzzi trace these changes. A comprehensive reimagining of Ceruzzi's A History of Modern Computing , this new volume uses each chapter to recount one such transformation, describing how a particular community of users and producers remade the computer into something new.
Haigh and Ceruzzi ground their accounts of these computing revolutions in the longer and deeper history of computing technology. They begin with the story of the 1945 ENIAC computer, which introduced the vocabulary of "programs" and "programming," and proceed through email, pocket calculators, personal computers, the World Wide Web, videogames, smart phones, and our current world of computers everywhere--in phones, cars, appliances, watches, and more. Finally, they consider the Tesla Model S as an object that simultaneously embodies many strands of computing.
544 pages, Paperback
Published September 14, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 17, 2022
This book is an incredible feat of scholarship, detailing the development of the electronic computer from the ENIAC to the Tesla in a rigorous yet approachable fashion. I was a big fan of Ceruzzi’s earlier editions of the book — and there are still certain aspects that I like more about those. This latest edition catches up the last two decades, and while I appreciate the expanded scope, the book sort of runs into a problem that it articulated and tries to avoid: how to write the history of ‘the computer’ once it becomes a totally diffuse and ubiquitous technology.
Ceruzzi’s earlier editions perhaps benefit from being focused around the computer as a discrete technological object and not yet totally embedded into every aspect of social, political, cultural, and economic life. But Ceruzzi and co-author Thomas Haigh do make a valiant effort at it nonetheless.
The other major difference from the earlier editions is that this edition reorganizes the material into more thematic and not strictly chronological order. This works sometimes but not in every case - for instance, the history of the early Internet is in a different chapter from the history of the Web, which obscures some of the connections between these technologies.
On the whole, the authors clearly explain key developments in computer history, weaving together technical and social aspects into the story, though there are times when they lean more heavily on the technical. The text presents some great overarching insights into different moments of computer history, explaining how certain things played out but could have gone differently, but at other times, the text settles into a rattling off of developments with less historical interpretation. A lot of ground is covered, so I don’t fault the authors for being more enumerative at times.
There are also a few times in the book when the authors suddenly become quite opinionated and let their personal attitudes/perspectives shine through. This is fine but it’s a bit jarring as this shift in tone is sporadic. For instance, in discussing the development of CDs, they chide audiophiles who prefer analog over digital music.
These are really just minor quibbles for what’s an overall astounding book.
Ceruzzi’s earlier editions perhaps benefit from being focused around the computer as a discrete technological object and not yet totally embedded into every aspect of social, political, cultural, and economic life. But Ceruzzi and co-author Thomas Haigh do make a valiant effort at it nonetheless.
The other major difference from the earlier editions is that this edition reorganizes the material into more thematic and not strictly chronological order. This works sometimes but not in every case - for instance, the history of the early Internet is in a different chapter from the history of the Web, which obscures some of the connections between these technologies.
On the whole, the authors clearly explain key developments in computer history, weaving together technical and social aspects into the story, though there are times when they lean more heavily on the technical. The text presents some great overarching insights into different moments of computer history, explaining how certain things played out but could have gone differently, but at other times, the text settles into a rattling off of developments with less historical interpretation. A lot of ground is covered, so I don’t fault the authors for being more enumerative at times.
There are also a few times in the book when the authors suddenly become quite opinionated and let their personal attitudes/perspectives shine through. This is fine but it’s a bit jarring as this shift in tone is sporadic. For instance, in discussing the development of CDs, they chide audiophiles who prefer analog over digital music.
These are really just minor quibbles for what’s an overall astounding book.
November 5, 2023
Computer scientists sure were ingenious in the analog days
October 3, 2025
I farmed this book for content on compiler engineering, and skimmed/skipped related section. The parts on compilers were interesting and other blogs such as this one[1] reference this book (and its predecessor) heavily.
I do wish compilers were covered more; the final mention of compilers was of Facebook’s php to c++ compiler. There were plenty of other compilation technologies that could have been covered in that time period too!
^[1]: https://cacm.acm.org/blogcacm/did-gra...
I do wish compilers were covered more; the final mention of compilers was of Facebook’s php to c++ compiler. There were plenty of other compilation technologies that could have been covered in that time period too!
^[1]: https://cacm.acm.org/blogcacm/did-gra...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews