Historical Reflections Five Lessons from Really Good History

摘要

My last column (September 2012) explored the lessons to be found in "bad history" of the invention of email. One of the things this reminded me of is just how little many people whose work focuses on information technology know about its evolution over the past 50 years. In this column, I look at some of the very best historical writing about computing from the past few years. I highlight one big lesson from each of four books, giving four ways in which learning more about history can change the way you think about computing. A bonus lesson sums up what the books tell us about the field as a whole.