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From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry (History of Computing) 3rd prt edition

by Martin Campbell-Kelly (Author)
3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 14 ratings
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Chronicles the software history's rise from its beginnings in the 1950s to America's fourth largest industrial sector, describing the different kinds of software, products, and markets that developed in the second half of the twentieth century, and profiling top contributors. (Technology)
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  1. ISBN-10
    0262033038
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0262033039
  3. Edition
    3rd prt edition
  4. Publisher
    Mit Pr
  5. Publication date
    January 1, 2003
  6. Part of series
    History of Computing
  7. Language
    English
  8. Dimensions
    6.25 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  9. Print length
    372 pages
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

When writers look at the birth of the computer age, they generally focus on the tangible hardware achievements of the likes of IBM and Intel and almost solely on Microsoft when it comes to software. Campbell-Kelly tells us that in the larger perspective, Microsoft is not the center of the software universe and indeed today makes up only about 10 percent of that industry. Mass-market "shrink-wrap" software is the retail version of a much larger sector that contributes to our lives constantly, running everything from airline reservations to bank transfers, credit-card transactions, and most corporate and government functions, including the space program. This is an area that is often ignored because software is hard to define; it is the nearest product we have that is virtually pure thought. Campbell-Kelly is the first historian to give us a comprehensive overview of this hidden industry, which spawned the first user groups when companies had to write their own programs for early IBM mainframes. He includes everything from the information infrastructure of IBM's CICS and SAP's R/3 to the ever-popular gaming software. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Inside Flap

"This book is a major step forward in documenting the software industry's history. It contributes structure and content as well as insight and analysis."
--Burton Grad, President, Software History Center

"From a disparate array of sources, Campbell-Kelly deftly and neatly teases out a compelling history of the emergence, structure, and development of the computer software and services sector of the US economy."
--Arthur Norberg, Director, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota

"This book presents an exceptionally clearheaded overview of one of the most important industries of the twentieth century. No other work covers the business dimensions of the software industry so comprehensively or so clearly. It should be the starting point for anyone interested in the history of the software business."
--Steven Usselman, School of History, Technology, and Society, Georgia Institute of Technology

"Campbell-Kelly is the first historian to map the terrain of the software industry, from contractors through corporate products to personal computer software. This pathbreaking book is packed with data and insights that will be valuable to historians of business and technology, as well as analysts of the contemporary software industry. It lays to rest a variety of myths and distortions about the software business, including the over-emphasis on Microsoft that has dominated writing about it to this time."
--JoAnne Yates, Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management, MIT

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mit Pr; 3rd prt edition (January 1, 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 372 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0262033038
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0262033039
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.45 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 14 ratings

Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars
3.7 out of 5
14 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Armando Fox
5.0 out of 5 stars it's easy to be turned off by works that focus exclusively ...
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2015
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Compact, well researched, and even entertaining history of the software industry. As a geek myself, it's easy to be turned off by works that focus exclusively on the business aspects without addressing the technological ones, but this work balances the two perspectives nicely and made for an engaging read. The focus really is on how software transformed various businesses (and on the evolution of the business of software itself), but there is enough technical perspective to anchor the narrative relative to the technological advancements of each phase of the computer industry. If you are a coder at heart but still interested in how the industry evolved, you'll enjoy this.
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James Held
3.0 out of 5 stars Curious shallow and obvious
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2013
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The author has been there and done his research but not found much interesting or insightful to say about this amazing period of time. Dissapointing
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great condition
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2021
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In great condition
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Kemal Burak Codur
4.0 out of 5 stars The only book solely on histroy of software industry
Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2007
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From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry - by the time of its publication and writing of this comment - is the only book that is solely on history of software industry. As an academician, Mr. Campbell-Kelly builds a historical view using carefully collected data. The scope of the book is mostly software industry in USA and this point is explicitly phrased at the beginning of the book, with plausible reasons. Among with absence of non-USA part of the history, history of military software is also missing (except SAGE). But this should also be an expected result, since it is very hard to collect data about military systems.

Because of the scope issues, the book may not satisfy all expectations (which is the reason for 4 stars), but from the opposite point of view, I believe that a better book can hardly be composed in the same conditions. As Mr. Campbell-Kelly pointed out, there are a lot of data about success stories or the firms that managed to live until today, but a lot more data have been lost to history. In this regard, "From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry" is among the most valuable source about the history of software industry. Everybody, who works in software industry should read this book.

A last note: the book really makes to think about history. The interested reader may also read books about meaning of history, like E. Carr's "What is History".
3 people found this helpful
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S. Conover
1.0 out of 5 stars Seemed like a used book
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2010
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I was surprised to find what appeared to be a "remainder mark" on a $40 book that was sold as new and not even discounted.
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Mark Meyer
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good historiography; could use more pictures
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2008
This book is scholarly, but accessible to the ordinary public, albeit people who are keenly interested in tables of rates of growth. The author describes the sources of his research humorously and in a most interesting manner. I give him very high marks for that, for letting the general public appreciate how hard it is to do research of this kind, sifting through all the junk for the few gems. I thought the author's technical competence was excellent, too, and his insights into such subtleties as operating systems was great.

I have only two complaints. He too often says "The story of ... is well documented elsewhere." A brief recap would have helped for those who don't have time to read the other sources.

Second, there is exactly one picture in the book, and while it is great (a stack of 60,000 punch cards for the SAGE system), I wish there would have been a few more, especially of earlier systems.

But overall a fabulous book, very neatly wedged between business history and computer history!
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Andrew Newman
4.0 out of 5 stars A mistake are there anymore?
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2003
While I enjoyed the book, especially for it's exploration of the early days of the software industry there is this rather curious mistake.
"In March 1983, Warner Communications decided to cut its losses and sell Atari. The video console and home computer division was sold to Commodore Business Machines, the arcade videogame division to the Japanese firm Namco."
It was in 1984 and it was to Jack Trammiel, the founder of Commodore. Warner retained the arcade business.
It makes me wonder how true the rest of these facts are in the book or whether this is a one off mistake. Unfortunately, this ruined it for me.
6 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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pudney
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 6, 2019
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Good
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Amazon-Kunde
2.0 out of 5 stars Kindl edition: From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry (History of Computing)
Reviewed in Germany on July 13, 2012
Verified Purchase
Diese Rezession bezieht sich nicht auf den Inhalt des Buches, an dessen Qualität ich nichts bemängeln möchte, sondern auf die Kindl-Edition, mit der ich weniger zufrieden bin. Es ist eine billige und lieblose Umsetzung. Die Fonts können nicht verändert werden, sind nicht immer 100% lesbar, und die Fußnoten sind nicht mit Links verbunden, was wirklich ärgerlich ist, wenn man wissenschaftlich arbeiten möchte. Das der Verlag es nicht einmal geschafft hat, die Kapitel einzufügen ist schon fast traurig. Da muss man wohl dankbar sein, dass es immerhin ISBN-Seitenzahlangaben gibt.
3 people found this helpful
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Andrew J. Coveney
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but 5 years out of date?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 28, 2005
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Whilst history itself doesn't change (although, of course, interpretations of it do) and is still interesting, I was a little disappointed that this book really only went up to the year 2000, despite a hardback publishing date of 2003 and the paperback date of 2004.
As such, I think it missed the key events of the early 2000's which have been a wake up call to the software industry.
Nonetheless, the lack of focus on Microsoft and the attention given to the likes of SAP were a welcome change from some of the other more recent computing history books. The scope from of the book (as the title suggests) from mainframe software to games also gives it some breadth missing elsewhere.
I have to say, however, that my favourite book in this area (and mentioned here) is 'Accidental Empires' which is written with great humour and not a little cynicism!
So, overall, worth reading if this is an area of interest to you but perhaps a little too academic for someone with only a casual interest in the topic.
2 people found this helpful
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