This is a book culled from the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota, featuring question-and-answer interview sessions with computing pioneers. It is, as a result, a work derived from archives but published to be read by a wider audience. The author in fact is a key figure from the early days of interactive computing that he is describing and analyzing. As a result, these facts of the publication are key to evaluating the work.

The author concludes that there are six salient points to keep in mind as lessons from these pioneers of computing. The pioneers are imaginative; one may succeed when another fails; each new idea needed to get around the system (particularly the telephone); any individual may be successful; when government, industry, and academia work together, progress is made; and finally there are unanticipated consequences in computing. With an introduction and a conclusion, seven chapters cover 12 pioneers: Herbert W. Robinson, Sam Wyly, Gene Amdahl, Richard Bloch, J. C. R. Licklider, Ivan Sutherland, Larry Roberts, Robert Kahn, Marvin Minsky, Michael Dertouzos, Joseph Traub, and the author, John Cullinane.

Four pioneers are paramount. Robinson was interviewed in 1988, recalling his experiences from 1952. He recollected information about his activities after a period of around 35 years. Robinson was central to “operations research and model-building for the US Air Force; ... strategic bomb[ing]; ... a public company renamed CEIR, Inc.; ... and the subsequent takeover of these [and related firms] by British Petroleum” [1]. Robinson also discusses “the early lack of competition and the later entrance of IBM into competition with CEIR” [1].

Wyly was interviewed in 2002, to recount his recollections about events in the 1950s and working for IBM’s Service Bureau Corporation and Honeywell, and then forming University Computer Corporation (UCC). Also, his instrumental role in forming Datran, and his unsuccessful attempt to acquire Western Union.

Amdahl, in a 1989 interview, recalls computing events of the 1950s. He describes his work at IBM and discusses his role in the design of computers for IBM, including the STRETCH, 701, 701A, and 704.

Lastly, in his 1984 interview, Bloch describes his work at the Harvard Computation Laboratory and his career in computing, noting how he met Howard Aiken some 40 years earlier (1943-1944). Harvard had just obtained the Mark I from IBM, where Bloch was involved with one of the most important aspects of his time, which was a solution for John von Neumann on spherical shock waves in an atomic implosion. When Bloch worked for Honeywell, he contributed to the 200, 400, and 800 series of Honeywell computers.

The remaining interviews should also be considered. Licklider was the first director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (ARPA) Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO); Sutherland describes his tenure as head of the IPTO from 1963 to 1965, while Roberts was Director of IPTO from 1968-1973. Kahn focuses on his role with ARPANET; the development of a new network protocol, transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP); and the switch to it to connect multiple networks. Minsky describes artificial intelligence (AI) research at MIT. Dertouzos discusses MIT’s relationship with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and IPTO. Traub discusses his academic contributions to computer science and mathematics at Bell Laboratories, Carnegie-Mellon, and Columbia University. Finally, software products industry pioneer Cullinane relates how in Cullinane Corporation, the firm’s evolving management strategy led to its long-term financial success.

The work should be applauded. Although the author is weak on historiography, the volume does a service by providing important highlights from an invaluable computing archival source. Most people who are interested in computers will not have an opportunity to examine the archival sources firsthand. Nonetheless, the key weakness of the volume is that the author does not reflect on his personal journey as a computing pioneer, the gap between the events described and the interviews, and the possible implications that his views might have on the interviewees and his introductory comments. Without substantial evidence, his six key points summarizing the volume are debatable, but require examination by critical analysis. Standard academic tools, such as an index and bibliography, are not included. The work does feature some interesting, archival photographs, which is an added bonus.

For standard works of computing history that cover the same period, the reader should consult Burks [2] and Shurkin [3].