Book ID: CBB001251885

Histories of Computing (2011)

unapi

Mahoney, Michael Sean (Author)
Haigh, Thomas (Author)


Harvard University Press


Publication Date: 2011
Physical Details: 250 pp.; ill.; bibl.; index
Language: English

Computer technology is pervasive in the modern world, its role ever more important as it becomes embedded in a myriad of physical systems and disciplinary ways of thinking. The late Michael Sean Mahoney was a pioneer scholar of the history of computing, one of the first established historians of science to take seriously the challenges and opportunities posed by information technology to our understanding of the twentieth century. Mahoney's work ranged widely, from logic and the theory of computation to the development of software and applications as craft-work. But it was always informed by a unique perspective derived from his distinguished work on the history of medieval mathematics and experimental practice during the Scientific Revolution. His writings offered a new angle on very recent events and ideas and bridged the gaps between academic historians and computer scientists. Indeed, he came to believe that the field was irreducibly pluralistic and that there could be only histories of computing. In this collection, Thomas Haigh presents thirteen of Mahoney's essays and papers organized across three categories: historiography, software engineering, and theoretical computer science. His introduction surveys Mahoney's work to trace the development of key themes, illuminate connections among different areas of his research, and put his contributions into context. The volume also includes an essay on Mahoney by his former students Jed Z. Buchwald and D. Graham Burnett. The result is a landmark work, of interest to computer professionals as well as historians of technology and science.

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Description Includes 13 essays by historian of computing Michael Mahoney on historiography, software engineering, and theoretical computer science.


Reviewed By

Review Priestley, Mark (2012) Review of "Histories of Computing". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 703-704). unapi

Essay Review Mccarty, Willard (2013) Getting into the Driver's Seat. Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 99-104). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001251885/

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Authors & Contributors
Ensmenger, Nathan Lee
Priestley, Mark
Kevles, Daniel J.
Grave, Kurt De
Daylight, Edgar G.
Con Diaz, Gerardo
Journals
IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
Technology and Culture
Journal of the Association for History and Computing
American Heritage of Invention and Technology
Publishers
Lonely Scholar Scientific Books
Yale University
Pickering & Chatto
MIT Press
Basic Books
University of Pennsylvania
Concepts
Software
Computers and computing
Computer science
Technology
Engineering
Programming languages
People
Kurtz, Thomas E.
Kemeny, John G. (1926-1993)
Von Neumann, John
Turing, Alan Mathison
Plato
Heaviside, Oliver
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, late
21st century
Places
United States
Minnesota (U.S.)
Institutions
Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium
Micro Computer Machines
Dartmouth University
International Business Machines Corporation
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