Nathan L. Ensmenger - The Computer Boys Take Over

This is a book about the computer revolution of the mid-20th century and the people who made it possible. Unlike most histories of computing, it is not a book about machines, inventors, or entrepreneurs. Instead, it tells the story of the vast but largely anonymous legions of computer specialistsprogrammers, systems analysts, and other software developerswho transformed the electronic computer from a scientific curiosity into the defining technology of the modern era. Known alternatively as "whiz kids," "hackers," and "gurus," this new breed of technical specialists were alternately admired for their technical prowess and despised for their eccentric mannerisms and the disruptive potential of the technologies they developed. As the systems that they built became evermore powerful and ubiquitous, these specialists became the focus of a series of critiques of the social and organizational impact of electronic computing. To many of their contemporaries, it seemed the "computer boys" were taking over, not just in the corporate setting, but also in government, politics, and society in general.

In The Computer Boys Take Over, Nathan Ensmenger traces the rise to power of the computer expert in modern American society. He follows the history of computer programming from its origins as low-status, largely feminized labor in the secret wartime computing projects through its reinvention as a glamorous "black art" practiced by "computer cowboys" in the 1950s through its rationalization in the 1960s as the academic discipline of computer science and the software engineering profession. His rich and nuanced portrayal of the men and women (a surprising number of the "computer boys" were, in fact, female) who built their careers around the novel technology of electronic computing explores issues of power, identity, and expertise that have only become more significant to our increasingly computerized society. His detailed analysis of the pervasive "software crisis" rhetoric of the late 1960s shows how seemingly technical debates about how to manage large-scale software development projects reflected deeper concerns about the growing power and influence of technical specialists in corporate, academic, and governmental organizations.

In his recasting of the drama of the computer revolution through the eyes of its principle revolutionaries, Ensmenger reminds us that the computerization of modern society was not an inevitable process driven by impersonal technological or economic imperatives, but was rather a creative, contentious, and above all, fundamentally human development.

Nathan L. Ensmenger

Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise

History of Computing - 20

ePub r1.1

fauri13 07.10.14

Original Title: The Computer Boys Take Over

Nathan L. Ensmenger, 2010

Digital Editor: fauri13

ePub base r1.1

For Deborah and the boys

NATHAN L. ENSMENGER studied engineering and operations research at Princeton University, where he focused on the development of expert systems. He worked for many years in the software industry for clients that include Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, Bank of America, and the National Association of Manufacturers. Shortly after obtaining his PhD in the history of science from the University of Pennsylvania, he was appointed to the faculty. In addition to holding his faculty position at Penn for almost a decade, he has taught at the School of Information at the University of TexasAustin, and as of 2012, the School of Information and Computing at Indiana University.

His research agenda currently focuses on the social and cultural history of software and software workers, the history of artificial intelligence, and the organizational dynamics of information technology. His book, The Computer Boys Take Over: Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise, explores the rise to power of a new group of technical experts in the American corporation. He is one of the co-authors of the third edition of the popular Computer: A History of the Information Machine. He is currently working on a book on the environmental history of computing.

Professor Ensmenger is an associate editor of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing and serves on the editorial board of the journal Information & Culture. He was a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently a fellow at the Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics.

For more information, see his curriculum vitae.

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