Books
The Computer Boys Take Over: Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise (MIT Press, 2010)
Of all of the revolutionary technological innovations of the 20th century, none is as widely recognized, as celebrated, or as profoundly influential as the invention of the electronic digital computer. But like all great social and technological developments, the computer revolution of the twentieth century didn’t just happen. It had to be made to happen, and made to happen by people, not impersonal processes.
In The Computer Boys Take Over, Nathan Ensmenger describes the emergence of a new breed of technical specialists—computer programmers, systems analysts, and data processing managers—who built their careers around the powerful new technology of electronic computing. It was these largely anonymous specialists who built the systems that transformed the novel technology of electronic computing from a scientific curiosity into the most powerful and ubiquitous technology of the modern era. Known alternatively as “whiz kids,” “hackers,” and “gurus,” they 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 and maintained became central to the operations of our modern computerized society, they became the focus of a series of critiques of the social and organizational impact computerization. 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.
Ensmenger follows the rise of the computer boys as they struggled to establish a role for themselves within traditional organizational, professional, and academic hierarchies. Was computer programming a “black art,” a legitimate science, or an industrial discipline? Were computer specialists more like scientists, engineers, managers, or clerical workers? What was the appropriate relationship between technical expertise and other, more traditional forms of social, political, and organizational power? In telling the story of these influential but unrecognized computer revolutionaries, Ensmenger provides a nuanced social history of the computerization of modern society that highlights the many ways in which even the most complex technologies are nevertheless fundamentally human constructions.
The companion website to this book, which contains excerpts, related essays, and other supplementary information, can be found here
Computer: A History of the Information Machine, 3rd edition. With Martin Campbell-Kelly, William Aspray and Jeffrey Yost. (Westview Press, 2013).
Computer: A History of the Information Machine traces the history of the computer, and shows how business and government were the first to explore its unlimited, information-processing potential. Old-fashioned entrepreneurship combined with scientific know-how inspired now famous computer engineers to create the technology that became IBM. Wartime needs drove the giant ENIAC, the first fully electronic computer. Later, the PC enabled modes of computing that liberated people from room-sized, mainframe computers.
This third edition provides updated analysis on software and computer networking, including new material on the programming profession, social networking, and mobile computing. It expands its focus on the IT industry with fresh discussion on the rise of Google and Facebook as well as how powerful applications are changing the way we work, consume, learn, and socialize. Computer is an insightful look at the pace of technological advancement and the seamless way computers are integrated into the modern world. Through comprehensive history and accessible writing, Computer is perfect for courses on computer history, technology history, and information and society, as well as a range of courses in the fields of computer science, communication, sociology, and management.
The Computer: A History of the Information Machine book has been translated into Japanese and Italian.
Book Chapters
“The Cloud is a Factory”, in Thomas Mullaney, ed. Your Computer is on Fire: The Politics of Computing and New Media (MIT Press, 2021)
“Making Programming Masculine”, in Tom Misa, ed. Gender Codes (Wiley, 2010)
“Resistance is Futile? Reluctant and Selective Users of the Internet”, in P. Ceruzzi and W. Aspray (eds.) The Internet and American Business (MIT Press, 2008). Winner of the Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2008.
“Sports Fans and their Information Gathering Habits” in William Aspray and Barbara Hayes (eds.), Information and Everyday Life (MIT Press, 2011). With Jameson Otto and Sara Metz.
“Computing for the humanities and social sciences” in W. Aspray and A. Akera (eds.) Using History To Teach Computer Science and Related Disciplines (Washington, D.C.: Computing Research Association, 2004)
“Software as Labor Process” in Mapping the History of Computing: Software Issues, U. Hashagen, R. Keil-Slawik, A. Norberg, eds. (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2002). With William Aspray.
Articles
James Tanfield-Taylor, Ashlee Mirizio, Bryce Greene, Nathan Ensmenger, “Beyond Microsoft and Monsanto: Denaturing the Monoculture Metaphor in Computing” CHI 2026.
Chaora, Anesu, Nathan Ensmenger, and L. Jean Camp, “Discourse, Challenges, and Prospects around the Adoption and Dissemination of Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs)” IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society 2023, 1–4.
“The Environmental History of Computing” Technology and Culture 59:5 (2018), pp. S7-S33.
Ensmenger, Nathan and Rebecca Slayton, “Computing and the Environment: Introducing a Special Issue of Information & Culture”, Information & Culture 52:3 (2017), pp. 295-303.
“The Multiple Meaning of the Flowchart” Information and Culture 51:3 (2016), pp. 321-351.
“Why Don’t Some CS0 Students Succeed?: How Important Are Background, Experience, Culture, Aptitude, Habits and Attitude?” in Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education (2016), pp. 317-318. With Daniel Garcia, Colleen Lewis, and Stuart Reges.
“Beards, Sandals, and Other Signs of Rugged Individualism: Culture & Identity within the Computing Professions” Osiris 30:1 (2015), pp. 38–65.
Ensmenger N, Kahn R, Abbate J, Farber D, “Computing and Information,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111(SUPPL. 2):9357-9360 (2014)
“Is Chess the Drosophila of AI? A Social History of an Algorithm” Social Studies of Science 42:1 (2012), pp. 5–30.
Awarded the 2013 Maurice Daumas Prize for the best article on the history of technology published in 2011-2012 from the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOTECH).
“The Digital Construction of Technology: Rethinking the History of Computers in Society” Technology & Culture 53:4 (2012), pp. 753-776.
“Are those who ignore history doomed to repeat it?” Chicago Law Review 78:4 (2012), pp. 1627-1685. With Peter Decherney and Christopher Yoo.
“Letting the ‘Computer Boys’ Take Over: Technology and the Politics of Organizational Transformation” International Review of Social History 48:11 (2003), pp. 152-180.
“The ‘Question of Professionalism’ in the Computing Fields,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 23:4 (2001), pp. 56-73.
Essays
“The dirty parts of the computing world” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists April 11, 2016.
“Computation, Materiality, and the Global Environment” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 35(3) (2013), pp. 78–80.
“Historical Reflections: Building Castles in the Air” Communications of the ACM 54:4 (2011), pp. 28-30.
“From Computer Celebrities to Historical Biography” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 33:4 (2011), pp. 86-88.
“Software as History Embodied” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 31:1(2009), pp. 89-91.
“The Computer: Mechanizing the Information Age,” Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World (Oxford University Press, 2008)
“Computers as Ethical Artifacts” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 29:4(2007), pp. 95-96.
“Open Source’s Lessons for Historians” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 26:4(2004), 103-104.
“Power to the people: toward a social history of computing” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 26:1(2004), pp. 95-96.
“The Development of Computer Languages,” in Science and its Times: Understanding the Social Significance of Scientific Discovery, Neil Schlager, ed. (Cambridge, MA: Gale Publishing, 2000)