Computer: A History of the Information Machine traces the history of the computer and shows how business and government were the first to explore its unlimited, information-processing potential. This third edition provides updated analysis on software and computer networking, including new material on the programming profession, social networking, and mobile computing. It expands its focus on the IT industry with fresh discussion on the rise of Google and Facebook as well as how powerful applications are changing the way we work, consume, learn, and socialize.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Preface to the Third Edition
• Introduction
• Part One: BEFORE THE COMPUTER
• 1 When Computers Were People
• 2 The Mechanical Office
• 3 Babbage's Dream Comes True
• Part Two: CREATING THE COMPUTER
• 4 Inventing the Computer
• PHOTOS: From Babbage's Difference Engine to System/360
• 5 The Computer Becomes a Business Machine
• 6 The Maturing of the Mainframe: The Rise of IBM
• Part Three: INNOVATION AND EXPANSION
• 7 Real Time: Reaping the Whirlwind
• 8 Software
• PHOTOS: From SAGE to the Internet
• 9 New Modes of Computing
• Part Four: GETTING PERSONAL
• 10 The Shaping of the Personal Computer
• 11 Broadening the Appeal
• 12 The Internet
• Notes
• Bibliography