In order to understand the author’s focus, this brief history of computing begins with describing what a computer is; as a result, he includes analog historical computers before surveying what often comes to mind first regarding computing: digital computers. Digital computers are nonetheless the period that most readers will associate with the history of computing. The works that will immediately come to mind, in particular for an American audience, are the Altanasoff-Berry effort, the ENIAC, and EDVAC. The author’s definition, however, entails a unique beginning to the volume often not included in most histories because the author traces computing, as he defines these tools, as existing in early civilizations; thereafter, he surveys computing history with a concentration on the von Neumann architecture underlying more recent digital developments. Important historical precedents are then to be found as early as the Babylonians through the Greeks, and the Romans and representative topics are included from the foundations of computing to the smartphone and social media: information is provided along the way for the step reckoner calculating machine of Leibniz, Babbage’s difference engine, Boole’s mathematics and logic, as well as his symbolic logic that provides an introduction to the foundations of computing.

Two chapters of the 20 in the book cover the most obvious parts of computing history that will come to mind for most readers interested in the history of computing: digital and commercial developments. The first digital computers, usually seen as the “first” computers, include the Altanasoff-Berry, and the ENIAC and EDVAC of the US; the Colossus and Manchester Mark I of England; and Zuse’s computers of Germany, which are all surveyed. Commercial applications are the UNIVAC of EMCC/Sperry in the US; LEO I of J. Lyons and the Ferranti Mark I of England; and the Zuse KG of Germany. These efforts during World War II motivated researchers on both sides of the conflict to investigate faster ways to perform calculations to solve practical problems. Thereafter, the first commercial computers including the UNIVAC I were developed by EMCC/Sperry in the US for the US Census Bureau and the LEO I computer developed by J. Lyons and Co. in England in partnership with Maurice Wilkes of Cambridge University. The Z4 computer was developed by Zuse KG in Germany, and the Ferranti Mark I computer was developed by Ferranti in partnership with the University of Manchester.

The work is conceived of as a text for an undergraduate computer science class. Basic definitions are covered, and the book is more comprehensive than other standard history of computing works because it covers analog and pre-digital computing innovations. The text then is written for a basic student introduction, which includes an abstract, key topics, review questions, and summary for each chapter. Also included are abundant pictures, illustrations, graphics, and references for each topic reviewed. Given the intended audience, the telecommunications chapter is not directly relevant to the focus of the book, but the author wanted to discuss the SAGE system of the late 1950s, which, as explained in a footnote, could have been tied to the first wide-area network connection, which was created in 1965. The book has no conclusion, but connections such as those noted here would assist undergraduates in making important connections or help them focus on relevant developments in computing. For example, since the author’s intent is to be historically comprehensive, the abacus and the slide rule could be included as well.

The strength and primary weakness of the volume then is its intended audience as an introductory text. The instructor adopting the volume will see value in the often-not-included history of computing text, which reviews the historical and analog computing material; however, the weakness of the volume then is the basic level of the writing and less attention given to the digital “first” computing era.

More problematic though is that the volume is an edit away from a finished product. William Shockley is reviewed where we are told he was not easy to work with (pp. 5-6), but then we are not told why until p. 89 (repeated on p. 99). Defense-related efforts, such as the SAGE and ARPANET, are not linked together as the author tells us in a footnote (p. 166), but we are not told why they are not. There are extra spaces in many places; there should be no question mark (p. 72, #6); there are no first names for Licklider (p. 165), Parnas (pp. 229-30), and Weizenbaum (pp. 259); and the text is repetitive, often repeating the same points in an abstract, the text, and summary.

Other histories that this volume may be compared to include The universal computer: the road from Leibniz to Turing [1] and Pioneers of computing [2].