Now in Italian and Japanese! #publications

I am pleased to note that the 3rd Edition of our book Computer: A History of the Information Machine has been translated into Italian and Japanese. And so, if you... more

The Cloud is a Factory, excerpted #publications

The website Fast Company posted an excerpt of my chapter from Your Computer is on Fire today. The excerpt is from my discussion of the continuity between the industrial and... more

The Cloud is a Factory #publications

I am immensely proud to be part of the new volume Your Computer is on Fire, published by MIT Press and edited by Thomas S. Mullaney, Benjamin Peters, Mar Hicks... more

The Environmental History of Computing #publications

As part of a special issue of the journal Technology & Culture exploring new directions in the history of computing, my article on The Environmental History of Computing has finally... more

The Multiple Meanings of a Flowchart #publications

From the very earliest days of electronic computing, flowcharts have been used to represent the conceptual structure of complex software systems. In much of the literature on software development, the... more

Beards, Sandals, and Other Signs of Rugged Individualism #publications

One of the most far-reaching and influential aspects of my research on the labor history of computing has been my work on women in computing. In a recent article entitled... more

Chess as Drosophila awarded 2013 Maurice Daumas Prize #publications #research #media

My article “Is Chess the Drosophila of AI? a Social History of an Algorithm” (Social Studies of Science, 2012) was recently awarded the 2013 Maurice Daumas Prize by the International... more

Computer - The Information Machine #publications

The third edition of the classic Computer: A History of the Information Machine has a cover, a website, and a publication date. When Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray published the... more

The Digital Construction of Technology #publications

The latest issue of Technology and Culture is out, and features an essay of mine entitled “The Digital Construction of Technology: Rethinking the History of Computers in Society,” in which,... more

The Computer Boys is out in paperback! #publications

The latest edition of The Computer Boys Take Over is out, this time in paperback. You can also buy the Kindle Edition or the original hardcover. From the updated book... more

Osiris, Masculinity, and Science #publications

Osiris is the annual special-issue companion to Isis, the premier journal of the history of science. In preparation for the upcoming issue on Masculinities in Science, the Philadelphia Area Consortium... more

Chicago Law Review #publications

In the most recent edition of the Chicago Law Review, two former University of Pennsylvania colleagues and I published a long (20,000 word) review/response to Timothy Wu’s recent book, The... more

The Computer Boys on Kindle! #publications

Update: The Kindle Edition of The Computer Boys Take Over is now available on Amazon! more

From Computing Celebrities to Historical Biography #publications

In an essay in the current issue of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, I explore the implications of the focus on “computing celebrities” in the popular press... more

Is Chess the Drosophila of AI? #publications

Update: The “Chess as Drosophila” article was recently awarded the 2013 Maurice Daumas Prize. My article “Is Chess the Drosophila of AI? A Social History of an Algorithm” is now... more

Histories of Computing #publications

In the current issue of Science, I have a review of a recently published collection of the late Princeton historian Michael Mahoney’s essays on the history of software [Histories of... more

Building Castles in the Air #publications

In this month’s Communications of the ACM, I have a short “historical reflection” on the recruitment and training of programmers in the 1950s. The essay is a short gloss of... more

Sports Fans and their Information Gathering Habits #publications

Last year I worked with two students at the School of Information at Indiana University on a piece called “Sports Fans and their Information Gathering Habits: How Media Technologies Have... more

The Computer Boys have a website! #publications

Actually, the computer boys have lots of websites. But my book, The Computer Boys Take Over Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise now has its own website. more

Gender Codes #publications

A new anthology exploring the history and sociology of women in computing that developed out of the Charles Babbage Institute conference is now available from Wiley. My contribution is a... more

The Computer Boys Take Over! #publications

The “computer revolution” of the mid-20th century is widely considered to be one of the defining moments of contemporary history. And yet very little is known about its principal revolutionaries,... more

Software as History Embodied #publications

Nathan Ensmenger, “Software as History Embodied,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 31:1 (2009), 88-91. Download the pdf. more

Oral History with Peter Wegner #publications

Oral history interview with Peter Wegner, emeritus professor of computer science at Brown University, and Fellow of the ACM. more

The Internet & American Business #publications

UPDATE: The Internet and American Business is now out in paperback Winner of the 2008 Choice Magazine award for outstanding academic title. <img class=”left border src=”/nensmeng/images/internet-business-sm.jpg)”> It’s finally here! The... more

Computers & Ethics #publications

Nathan Ensmenger, “Computers as Ethical Objects,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 29:3 (2007), 86-88. Download the pdf. more

Resistance is Futile #publications

Nathan Ensmenger, “Resistance is Futile? Reluctant and Selective Users of the Internet” in P. Ceruzzi and W. Aspray, The Commercialization of the Internet and Its Impact on American Business (MIT... more

Open Source's Lessons for Historians #publications

Nathan Ensmenger, “Open Source’s Lessons for Historians,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 26:4 (2004), 103-104. Download the pdf. more

Toward a Social History of Computing #publications

Nathan Ensmenger, “Power to the people: toward a social history of computing,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 26:1(2004), 95-96. Download the pdf. more

Letting the Computer Boys Take Over #publications

Nathan Ensmenger. Letting the ‘computer boys’ take over: Technology and the politics of organizational transformation. International Review of Social History, 48(S11):153-180, 2003. Download the pdf. more

Software as Labor Process #publications

In April 2000, the International Conference on the History of Computing hosted a special conference on the history of software. The goal was to set an agenda for future scholarship... more

The Question of Professionalism #publications

Nathan Ensmenger. “The ‘question of professionalism’ in the computer fields.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 4(23):56-73, 2001. Download the pdf more