This book is, in my view, the best one-volume history of computing in print. An updated version of the 1998 original incorporating one additional chapter on recent events and a few minor editorial changes, it surveys major developments since 1945 in clear, straightforward fashion. Its coverage, including many useful illustrations, is both wide-ranging and thorough. Paul Ceruzzi looks hard at every significant aspect of computing technology—logical design, electronic components, networking, and software—while also considering the economic dynamics of the industry and its major firms. Whether discussing technology or business, his analysis is consistently balanced. He exhibits no obvious bias toward establishing a particular overarching interpretative lesson. His book makes no grand claims about the importance of government, the wonders of free markets, the pervasive influence of defense, the centrality of entrepreneurship, or the preeminence of any technician or region. Yet Ceruzzi is not afraid to make clear and forceful assessments about such matters when addressing the particulars. Discussing the rise of early semiconductor manufacturers, to cite one notable example, he declares unequivocally that commercial customers, not the military, drove the pursuit of standard products of high reliability. This point, like many others sprinkled throughout the text, constitutes an original and compelling interpretation that will interest specialists as well as general readers.

Several other examples of this sort stem from Ceruzzi's extensive treatment of minicomputers and their suppliers, especially the Digital Equipment Company (DEC). Too often, histories effectively divide computing into two grand ages, the first dominated by IBM mainframes and the second by the networked personal computers of Intel and Microsoft. By taking time to examine DEC, Wang, and other suppliers of minicomputers, as well as their customers, Ceruzzi provides a much richer picture. Cognizant that microcomputers such as the PC emerged from a distinctive path and were not merely “smaller minis,” he nevertheless demonstrates how minicomputers provided a vital bridge between the two dominant forms by fostering new applications and opening new avenues of competition and innovation. We see clearly how DEC at once cut into the IBM empire while also providing many of the key figures in the PC realm, including the extraordinary creative team at XeroxPARC and a young Bill Gates, with vital experiences in the emerging world of interactive computing.

Insights such as these may not jump out readily for all readers. With its thoroughness and care for detail, this book has something of an encyclopedic quality, with all that entails. (Students in my classes persistently describe it as dry, though I just as persistently keep assigning it.) Ceruzzi packages his material in small bites, with frequent subheadings. His chapter breaks combine topics with chronology in a manner that further fragments the material and undermines the narrative line. At points the book seems unnecessarily repetitious. Such is the price we pay for comprehensiveness.

Readers looking for rigorous economic analysis of the computer industry may be disappointed. This book is essentially a business and technical history of computing, not an economic one. Ceruzzi offers little summary data about the diffusion of computing technology and makes virtually no effort to assess its impact upon users. Nor is he primarily concerned with the dynamics of competition among producers. Still, his careful assessment of key technical innovations, together with his insightful treatments of the individuals and firms that created them, make this work of great value to anyone seeking to comprehend the first half-century of this vitally important technology and the industry it spawned.