The authors have thoroughly documented a solid piece of NSF-sponsored research into word processing and office information systems in general. This is distinct from having written an easy-reading book for users or a text for business schools.

They begin with a history of word processing, starting with the development of the steel pen nib in 1858. They analyze word processing and all aspects of office automation in great detail, outlining for each feature where it came from, what its benefits are, who uses it, and under what circumstances. The reader is left completely informed about theory and concepts. There are also a number of interesting reports on particular implementations. Word processing is covered in all manifestations from stand-alone PCs through organization-wide mainframe-based systems.

The book suffers from a totally dry, academic approach that will distress nonacademics. The dryness is made drier still by an absence of illustrations. Each information source used is immediately and meticulously credited, to the point of becoming disconcerting, as this sample from page 13 demonstrates.

By the turn of the century, shorthand and touch typing were widely used; more that 100,000 typewriters had been sold (Giuliano 1982). The typewriter was seen at the time as a major revolution equal to the steam locomotive (Bliven 1954; Curley 1981).

The book can also be faulted for its attitude that word processing is something secretaries do. There is little mention that ever more authors of correspondence now do their own keyboarding, meaning that secretaries now do less typing than formerly and are becoming junior administrators.

But if this book is dry and academic, so was the original paper by von Neumann, Goldstine, and Burks, which was Genesis for all computerniks. Whoever has the stamina to read this book will have the best possible theoretical and conceptual foundation in word processing and office automation, the fastest-growing fields in information systems. And the language is straightforward and not at all highfalutin. It is a must read for managers who find themselves in situations in which word processing or office automation is being introduced, expanded, or reshaped.