Acknowledgments

This book represents the culmination of a long period of research, writing, and intellectual exchange that has benefited enormously from the contributions of numerous historians from around the globe. The history of the computing community, although small in number, is great in spirit, and is as welcoming a collection of scholars as I have ever encountered.

Two of the senior members of this community have proven particularly supportive of me and my work. William Aspray has served as an adviser and mentor from almost the beginning of my career, and has been unfailingly generous in his time, energy, and encouragement. The late Michael Mahoney, whose wit and erudition will be sorely missed by the community, also served as a model of unselfish scholarship. It would be impossible to detail the many ways in which both of these scholars have informed, and continue to inform, my own thinking and scholarship.

This book started as a dissertation, and owes much to the friends and advisers who guided it through its earliest incarnations. Emily Thompson, Robert Kohler, and Walter Licht served as patient readers of many, many early drafts, and without their kind and enlightened counsel this project would never have made it past its infancy. Josh Buhs, Thomas Haigh, Atsushi Akera, and the rest of my graduate school cohort listened for years to my vague musings on the eccentricities of early computer programmers, and their feedback helped refine my thoughts and arguments. Edward Bell and the rest of the crew at E. J. Bell and Associates, by providing me with frequent opportunities to pick up consulting work, made it possible for me to finish graduate school without going under financially.

My colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania have been patient and gracious sounding boards and mentors. Ruth Schwartz Cowan, who served as the chair of the department for most of the formative years of this manuscript, allowed me time and space to balance my research and teaching. Susan Lindee has continued that tradition. Both of them have provided much support and encouragement. Janet Tighe has served as a fount of wisdom and sanity for almost a decade. John Tresch and Beth Linker have struggled alongside me in the trenches as my fellow junior faculty members. My other senior colleagues have been endlessly giving of their advice and solicitude. I appreciate all of them greatly.

There are far too many archivists, librarians, and fellow historians who contributed to this project to identify them individually here. The Charles Babbage Institute, however, cannot go unmentioned. Not only does the Babbage hold the vast majority of the source material used to construct this history but also it serves as the center of gravity of the entire history of the computing community. It also provided generous funding in the form of the Tomash Fellowship in the History of Information Processing. Tom Misa, Jeff Yost, and Arthur Norberg have all served as trusted friends and advisers.

Finally, like most academic book projects, this one has absorbed more than its share of my time and energy outside the office. Many thanks to all of my family. My parents, Elisabeth and Stephen, made possible so many opportunities in my life. My wife, Deborah, has been a constant companion and source of loving support, and has been endlessly forgiving of my need to stretch the project out with “just one more” revision. My three sons, Asher, Tate, and Tucker, made the process bearable by providing joy, motivation, and strength each day.