A Computer Perspective [Paperback]

Charles Eames (Author), Ray Eames (Author), Glen Fleck (Editor), I. Bernard Cohen (Introduction), Robert Staples (Producer)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0674156269 | ISBN-13: 978-0674156265 | Publication Date: September 1, 1990 | Edition: Rev Sub

A Computer Perspective is an illustrated essay on the origins and first lines of development of the computer. The complex network of creative forces and social pressures that have produced the computer is personified here in the creators of instruments of computation, and their machines or tables; the inventors of mathematical or logical concepts and their applications; and the fabricators of practical devices to serve the immediate needs of government, commerce, engineering, and science.

The book is based on an exhibition conceived and assembled for International Business Machines Corporation. Like the exhibition, it is not a history in the narrow sense of a chronology of concepts and devices. Yet these pages actually display more true history (in relation to the computer) than many more conventional presentations of the development of science and technology.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A Computer Perspective is the first truly graphic history of the origin and development of the computer...This book will long remain a unique anthology of the great events that occur when dreamers and theorists can get together with engineers and inventors. (The Economist )

A Computer Perspective: Background to the Computer Age sets out to...[place] the digital computer in its historical context, taking 1950 as its terminal date. By then, the digital computer revolution had been fully inaugurated with the first generation of modern stored-program computers. The book casts a wide net as it presents, mainly with pictures and captions, the many contributory ideas and developments that provide the foundation and background for the computer age...This is a book full of interesting pictures and quotations. It brings out the technical, human and social aspects of the development of computers in an imaginative way. Who could resist a book containing such fascinating information?
--Antony Anderson (New Scientist )

The volume is a must for everyone interested in computer history and an important tool for anyone wanting to understand how the computer age started.
--Heinz Zemanek, Science of Computer Programming

[This] book set a standard for the history of computing.
--P. E. Ceruzzi (Computing Reviews )

About the Author

I. Bernard Cohen, Victor S. Thomas Professor of the History of Science, Emeritus, at Harvard University, is one of the founders of the modern study of the history of science.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press; Rev Sub edition (September 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674156269
• ISBN-13: 978-0674156265
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #694,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A complete guide to computer history., July 7, 2000

By 

Charles A. Germershausen - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Computer Perspective (Paperback)

Clear, but brief details on a vast array of the people, machines, and problems associated with the invention of the computer. It's a very picture intense book that makes learning the computer age interesting and somewhat exciting. This extensive collection of pictures ranges from the real news articles to the inventors actually working the machines. This book acts as a perfect quick-reference to the computer age.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Background to the Computer Age, January 29, 2007

By 

David Barnett (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Computer Perspective (Paperback)

So many books focus on the 60's as a start point with a brief synopsis of the beforehand but this visual essay lays out the territory from Babbage in the 1800's to SEAC in the 50's with the emphasis on a pictorial timeline and some factual points. Its an overview of the computers pre-history which ran alongside Charles and Ray Eames' IBM exhibition 'A Computer Perspective' - all important research for computer 'Nerdcorps' and historical browsers alike.