Histórias da Computação

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Histories of computing
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Mark Mounts
Dartmouth College
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49-2111 QA76 2010-47555 CIP
Choice
www.cro3.org
doi: 10.5860/CHOICE.49-2111
CHOICE December 2011 vol. 49 no. 04
Mahoney, Michael Sean. Histories of computing, ed. and introd. by Thomas
Haigh. Harvard, 2011. 250p index afp ISBN 9780674055681, $49.95
Mahoney (Princeton; 1939-2008) was an influential historian of science who
provided a strong historiographical lens to the nascent field of history of
computing. He was particularly attracted to software engineering and the
emergence of theoretical computer science as a discipline. Haigh (Univ. of
Wisconsin, Milwaukee) justly describes Mahoney's writing as "unmistakably
challenging" and "skillfully constructed and patiently polished." In comparing the
papers in this collection with those listed on Mahoney's Web site, about 70 percent
of his work on the history of computing is represented here. Only short extracts
from Mahoney's "Roots of Software Engineering" and "Software as Science--Science
as Software" are included. Haigh introduces Mahoney with a thoughtful, scholarly
overview of his work, and helpfully arranges his writings into three topical
sections: "Shaping the History of Computing," "Constructing a History of Software,"
and "The Structures of Computation." A biography of Mahoney written by J.
Buchwald (CalTech) and D. Graham Burnett (Princeton), originally published in Isis
in 2009, is the closing chapter. Haigh adds his own notes and richly expands
Mahoney's original footnotes. Newcomers to Mahoney will find great value in this
collection. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels of academic and general
readership.
--M. Mounts, Dartmouth College
Copyright 2011 American Library Association
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