A Bibliographic Guide to Resources in Scientific Computing, 1945-1975

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Contains references to the most significant resources on scientific computing in the three decades following the advent of digital computers in the mid-1940s. An essential contribution to the study of the history of computers, this work identifies the computer's impact on the physical, biological, cognitive, and medical sciences. References fundamental to the understudied area of the history of scientific computing also document the significant role of the sciences in helping to shape the development of computer technology. More broadly, the many resources on scientific computing help demonstrate how the computer was the most significant scientific instrument of the 20th century. The only guide of its kind covering the use and impact of computers on the the physical, biological, medical, and cognitive sciences, it contains more than 1,000 annotated citations to carefully selected secondary and primary resources. Historians of technology and science will find this a very useful resource. Computer scientists, physicians, biologists, chemists, and geologists will also benefit from this extensive bibliography on the history of computer applications and the sciences.

Reviews

[A] very useful guide to the first three decades of computer applications to scientific purposes....This should save researchers a good deal of search time.-Communication Booknotes Quarterly
Yost has done a thorough job in compliling a wealth of comprehensive and unique sources.... A well-researched and comprehensive bibliography, this guide would be appropriate for academic libraries.-E-Streams
Yost offers researchers investigating the first three decades of computing a well-researched, coherently arranged, elegantly annotated reference source. It includes primary and secondary English-language materials that meet the author's criteria of originality, analysis, and contextual value. Especially valuable are the descriptions of "hidden" (hard-to-find) resources, such as archival materials....The book's introduction easily stands on its own as a nicely crafted primer of computing history. An outstanding resource and unique key to the historical role of computing as a tool of science. Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and higher.-Choice
"A very useful guide to the first three decades of computer applications to scientific purposes....This should save researchers a good deal of search time."-Communication Booknotes Quarterly
"[A] very useful guide to the first three decades of computer applications to scientific purposes....This should save researchers a good deal of search time."-Communication Booknotes Quarterly
"Yost has done a thorough job in compliling a wealth of comprehensive and unique sources.... A well-researched and comprehensive bibliography, this guide would be appropriate for academic libraries."-E-Streams
"Yost offers researchers investigating the first three decades of computing a well-researched, coherently arranged, elegantly annotated reference source. It includes primary and secondary English-language materials that meet the author's criteria of originality, analysis, and contextual value. Especially valuable are the descriptions of "hidden" (hard-to-find) resources, such as archival materials....The book's introduction easily stands on its own as a nicely crafted primer of computing history. An outstanding resource and unique key to the historical role of computing as a tool of science. Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and higher."-Choice

Author Bio

JEFFREY R. YOST is Associate Director and Research Historian at the Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota.