In The third volume of The Digital Hand, James W. Cortada completes his sweeping survey of the effect of computers on American industry, turning finally to the public sector, and examining how computers have fundamentally changed the nature of work in government and education. This book goes far beyond generalizations about the Information Age to the specifics of how industries have functioned, now function, and will function in the years to come. Cortada combines detailed analysis with narrative history to provide a broad overview of computings and telecommunications role in the entire public sector, including federal, state, and local governments, and in K-12 and higher education. Beginning in 1950, when commercial applications of digital technology began to appear, Cortada examines the unique ways different public sector industries adopted new technologies, showcasing the manner in which their innovative applications influenced other industries, as well as the U.S. economy as a whole.
He builds on the surveys presented in the first volume of the series, which examined sixteen manufacturing, process, transportation, wholesale and retail industries, and the second volume, which examined over a dozen financial, telecommunications, media, and entertainment industries. With this third volume, The Digital Hand trilogy is complete, and forms the most comprehensive and rigorously researched history of computing in business since 1950, providing a detailed picture of what the infrastructure of the Information Age really looks like and how we got there. Managers, historians, economists, and those working in the public sector will appreciate Cortada's analysis of digital technology's manyroles and future possibilities.

Designed as a companion to the acclaimed "Spain in the Twentieth-Century World" (Greenwood Press, 1980), this volume is a survey of 19th-century Spanish diplomacy. Although the 19th century is often considered highly fragmented in Spanish history, this distinguished set of writers shows that insofar as diplomacy goes, Spain has followed very consistent lines of activities throughout the century. Spaniards have attempted to use diplomacy to further national and international objectives with mixed results. This study adds insight into the national political affairs of Spain while dealing directly with the events of such regions as North Africa, Santo Domingo, Mexico, the United States, Portugal, France, Great Britain, Chile, and Peru. It is also an important contribution to the diplomacy of the 19th-century, post-Napoleonic Mediterranean world.

This comprehensive overview of the history of computing and its industry, and of commercial applications of the computer also outlines the history of how computing operations were managed within American companies. Based on extensive research in the contemporary business literature, this work is one of the few which looks at computing as business history, and it is the first to look at the broad scope of computing from the perspective of the business historian. The work is also directed at business managers to help them appreciate and understand the uses of the computer in their firms.

"Taken together, these volumes offer access to more than 400 entries on all aspects of data processing. They chronicle the history of those individuals and organizations that have contributed to the evolution of data processing over the past two decades, and jointly form a reference work that has no present parallel in the applied sciences." Choice

This dictionary offers a ready reference to the biographies of more than 160 individuals prominent in the history of data processing. It includes scientists, engineers, government officials, executives of major computer manufacturing companies, and users of data processing technology, and extends in time from antiquity through the 1980s. In an attempt to inform readers at all levels of specialization, the volume gives basic information to the general reader while providing reference materials that will serve the specialist as a starting point for further research.

"A valuable contribution to the literature on the Spanish civil war. . . . Eminently suitable for academic and large public libraries." Reference Books Bulletin

Complementing the author's 1990 bibliography, A Bibliographic Guide to the History of Computing, Computers, and the Information Processing Industry, this bibliography provides 2,500 new citations, covering all significant literature published since the late 1980s. It includes all aspects of the subject--biographies, company histories, industry studies, product descriptions, sociological studies, industry directories, and traditional monographic histories--and covers all periods from the beginnings to the personal computer. New to this volume is a chapter on the management of information processing operations, useful to both historians and managers of information technology. Together with the earlier bibliography, this work provides the most comprehensive bibliographic guide to the history of computers, computing, and the information processing industry. The organization of the book follows that of the earlier work, with the addition of the new chapter on the management of information processing. All entries are new to this volume. Titles are annotated, and each chapter begins with a short introduction. A full table of contents and author and subject indexes enhance accessibility to the material.

The history of the computer, and of the industry it spawned, is the latest entrant into the field of historical studies. Scholars beginning to turn their attention to the subject of computing need James Cortada's "Archives of Data Procesing History" as a brief introduction to sources immediately available for investigation. Each essay provides an overview of a major government, academic, or industrial archival collection dealing with the history of computing, the industry, and its leaders and is written by the archivist/historian who has worked with or is responsible for the collection.

The archives give practical information on hours, organization, contacts, telephone numbers, survey of contents, and assessments of the historical significance of the collections and their institutions. Reference and business librarians will definitely want to add this volume to their collections. Those interested in the history of technology, the business history of the industry, and the history of major institutions will want to consult it.

This book tells the story of how information evolved since the mid-nineteenth century. It argues that information increased in quantity, became more specialized by discipline (e.g., mathematics, science, political science), and more organized. Information increased in volume due to a series of innovations, such as the electrification of communications and the development of computers, but also due to the organization of facts and knowledge by discipline, making it easier to manage and access. I do this by looking at what major disciplines have done to shape the nature of modern information, devoting chapters to the most obvious ones. I argue that understanding how some features of information evolved is useful for those who work in subjects that deal with their very construct and application, such as computer scientists and those exploring social media and, most recently, history. The book continues my more than twenty years of studying how information became a central feature of modern society, building on prior books I have written, most notably as a sequel to All the Facts: A History of Information in the United States since 1870 (OUP, 2016) and Building Blocks of Society: History, Information Ecosystems, and Infrastructures (R&L, 2021).

This book studies authenticity, which is a kind of truth to self, through the study of heritage tourism. When a heritage site is inauthentic, it leads to misinformation. Tourism scholars have been studying authenticity for about 50 years, and this book draws upon the theories and approaches of tourism studies to understand better misinformation, which has become a major topic of study since the US presidential elections in 2016. The book includes a discussion of common-sense and academic notions of authenticity, surveys a half century of scholarship on authenticity, and provides three case studies of heritage tourism sites: Lindsborg, KS (known as Little Sweden, USA), Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, and the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania.

As millions of people have been exposed to computing through the tremendous growth of microcomputers, there has developed an increasing appreciation of the history of data processing, which dates back many decades before the arrival of the computer. Stretching back to at least the 1860s, such early technologies as adding machines, punch cards, and the office appliance industry are now being recognized for their place in the history of the information processing industry. This work brings together a comprehensive list of sources that offer a general introduction to the literature of the industry. Divided into nine chapters covering topics and historical periods, the bibliography provides an annotated list of published materials describing both the history of the industry and significant items of general interest. Each chapter is introduced with a short review of historically important issues and comments on the literature, and contains contemporary publications as well as more recent material. To give the work a continuing usefulness, ongoing publications, such as computer magazines, are highlighted. Entries are grouped under nearly 100 subheadings, covering such material as contemporary descriptions of hardware and software of the past, seminal technical papers, industry surveys, programming languages, significant individuals and companies, and the role of Japan and microcomputing. All citations are annotated with a brief summary of either the work's contents or its historical importance, while two indexes provide both subject references and author citations. This bibliography will be an important reference source for courses in the history of data processing and business history, and auseful addition to public, college, and university libraries.

The history of information is a rapidly emerging new subfield of history. Historians are identifying the issues they need to examine, crafting novel research agendas, and locating research materials relevant to their work. Like the larger world around them, historians are discovering what it means to live and work in a world that increasingly sees itself as an information society. Long a discussion point among sociologists, economists, political leaders, and media experts, historians are integrating their methods and research into the larger conversation. This book proposes a way to look at the history of information and to history as a whole that is simultaneously relevant to observers in other disciplines and familiar to historians of business, economics, sociology and technology. The author presents that advocacy in two ways: with theoretical and historiographical discussions of what information ecosystems and infrastructures are and their value for this kind of research, second, through a range of case studies applying those concepts. The wide range of case studies is purposeful in demonstrating the applicability of the ideas presented in the early methodological chapters. Themes mentioned in each of the early chapters are consistently applied in all subsequent chapters. This book breaks from the more traditional historiography of book history, sociological and philosophical discussions about knowledge and society. The first two chapters focus on the craft of the historian in this new field, better known as historiography and methods. Subsequent chapters are case studies, showing what results when a historian writes about ecosystems and infrastructures, moving our discussion from theory to practice. The book is an important and substantive contribution to this new subfield, an essential primer, as well as a major statement for all historians on how next to evolve their craft.

IBM was the world’s leading provider of information technologies for much of the twentieth century. What made it so successful for such a long time, and what lessons can this iconic corporation teach present-day enterprises? James W. Cortada—a business historian who worked at IBM for many years—pinpoints the crucial role of IBM’s corporate culture. He provides an inside look at how this culture emerged and evolved over the course of nearly a century, bringing together the perspectives of employees, executives, and customers around the world. Through a series of case studies, Inside IBM explores the practices that built and reinforced organizational culture, including training of managers, employee benefits, company rituals, and the role of humor. It also considers the importance of material culture, such as coffee mugs and lapel pins. Cortada argues that IBM’s corporate culture aligned with its business imperatives for most of its history, allowing it to operate with a variety of stakeholders in mind and not simply prioritize stockholders. He identifies key lessons that managers can learn from IBM’s experience and apply in their own organizations today. This engaging and deeply researched book holds many insights for business historians, executives and managers concerned with stakeholder relations, professionals interested in corporate culture, and IBMers.

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Covering over 40 industries and dozens of applications, this is the first bibliography on the history of computer applications. After an introductory essay on the history of applications, the volume is divided into two time periods and includes over 1,600 entries, arranged by application and industry. Users will find sections on such fields as higher education, manufacturing, law enforcement, accounting, space travel, ATMs, artificial intelligence, banking, and trucking. Entries are annotated to describe their content and, when appropriate, their historical significance.

Compiled by a historian for other historians and economists, the bibliography draws on the entire spectrum of contemporary and historical literature: books, user's guides, trade journals, industry publications, technology and scholarly magazines and journals, and newsletters, including both American and European sources. As the author of several books on information processing and a member of the IBM Corporation, Cortada is in a good position to pick the historically significant literature for inclusion in this bibliography.

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This book studies how a technological innovation -- in this case the computer -- progresses from its origin as an idea in someone's mind to its eventual manifestation as a useable and marketable consumer product.

This book studies how a technological innovation -- in this case the computer -- progresses from its origin as an idea in someone's mind to its eventual manifestation as a useable and marketable consumer product.

The Digital Hand, Volume 2, is a historical survey of how computers and telecommunications have been deployed in over a dozen industries in the financial, telecommunications, media and entertainment sectors over the past half century. It is past of a sweeping three-volume description of how management in some forty industries embraced the computer and changed the American economy. Computers have fundamentally changed the nature of work in America. However it is difficult to grasp the full extent of these changes and their implications for the future of business. To begin the long process of understanding the effects of computing in American business, we need to know the history of how computers were first used, by whom and why. In this, the second volume of The Digital Hand, James W. Cortada combines detailed analysis with narrative history to provide a broad overview of computing's and telecomunications' role in over a dozen industries, ranging from Old Economy sectors like finance and publishing to New Economy sectors like digital photography and video games. He also devotes considerable attention to the rapidly changing media and entertainment industries which are now some of the most technologically advanced in the American economy. Beginning in 1950, when commercial applications of digital technology began to appear, Cortada examines the ways different industries adopted new technologies, as well as the ways their innovative applications influenced other industries and the US economy as a whole. He builds on the surveys presented in the first volume of the series, which examined sixteen manufacturing, process, transportation, wholesale and retail industries. In addition to thisaccount, of computers' impact on industries, Cortada also demonstrates how industries themselves influenced the nature of digital technology. Managers, historians and others interested in the history of modern business will appreciate this historical analysis of digital technology's many roles and future possibilities in an wide array of industries. The Digital Hand provides a detailed picture of what the infrastructure of the Information Age really looks like and how we got there.

In The Digital Hand, James W. Cortada combines detailed analysis with narrative history to provide a broad overview of computing's role in sixteen industries, accounting for nearly half of the U.S. economy. Beginning in 1950, when commercial applications of digital technology began to appear, Cortada examines the ways different industries adopted new technologies, as well as the ways their innovative applications influenced other industries and the U.S economy. In addition, to this account of computers' impact on industry, Cortada also demonstrates how industries themselves influenced the nature of digital technology. Managers, economists, and anyone interested in the history of modern business will appreciate this historical analysis of digital technology's many roles and its future possibilities in a wide array of industries. A detailed picture of what the infrastructure of the Information Age really looks like and how we got there, The Digital Hand is a sweeping survey of how computers transformed the American economy.

In this dynamic book, based on the most effective strategies of IBM and other market leaders, managers will learn to successfully transform their organizations into a business prepared to compete in a networked age.
Mainframes, client servers, PCs, networks, e-business, the Internet, databases, technical management--indeed, in the brave new business world facing today's firms only one thing is certain: change. And when looking for a model for corporate change, one should look no further than IBM. In this decade, IBM has gone from a company with less than $60 billion in unprofitable revenue to a highly profitable $85 billion-plus enterprise. In a company whose major source of revenue was once hardware, services now account for more than a third of its revenue. IBM Global Services, only seven years old and $25 billion strong, draws most of its revenue from helping businesses to do successfully what IBM has done: transform themselves. In five down-to-earth sections, the authors share their vast experience, apply case studies, chart trends and describe in-depth the practices that allowed IBM to transform itself, and to show the way for other firms. The result is an essential handbook for anyone charged with leading their firm in an economy that is global, increasingly reliant on information systems, and teeming with rapidly emerging markets--and competitors.
Written by a staff of experts and renowned business thinkers, Into the Networked Age is today's ultimate guide for success in tomorrow's business world.