The dramatic rise of digital computers in the second half of the 20th century did not just happen. This profound change was driven by governments and a number of inspired individuals, with levels of success varying across different countries and cultures. This work, part of the “ACM Books” series and edited by van Lente, examines the rapid rise in the use of digital computers around the world and discusses the prophetic people that drove this rise. The first chapter covers the goals and layout of the book and introduces the theme, beginning with the first appearance of electronic digital computers shortly after the Second World War and the discussions between engineers, scientists, politicians, and entrepreneurs on the potential for these new devices. The rest of the book is structured into three parts.

The three chapters of Part 1 look at the growth of digital computing during the Cold War. The surprising similarities between the capitalist and communist blocs, and exchanges between visionaries in military, industrial, and academic areas of both blocs, are the subject of chapter 2. Chapter 3 provides an interesting discussion on the entrepreneurs involved in the growth of microcomputing and home computing in the US, particularly the efforts of Jack Tramiel and his Commodore Business Machines company. Chapter 4 concludes Part 1, looking in detail at the growth of digital computing use in the banking sectors of both East and West Germany.

The chapters of Part 2 look at how the governments of five countries encouraged national computing cultures--partly to counter the dominance of US corporations. The policies employed to foster the growth of the computer industry and infrastructure in the United Kingdom (UK) are discussed in some detail, including the development of personal microcomputers such as the Acorn and Sinclair ZX80; the impact of the French Minitel project of the 1980s; and the controversy over computer automation’s potential impact on jobs in the Netherlands, in the 1970s and 1980s. Chapter 8 looks at China: collaboration with the Soviet Union in the 1950s, the failures of the Cultural Revolution, and the changes resulting from Deng Xiaoping’s “Open Door” policies of the 1970s and 1980s, provide an interesting contrast in the development of digital computing (along with Japan) to that in the West. Chapter 9, the last in Part 2, looks at the development of the digital computing industry in India. The author notes that developing science and education has been a government priority for nation-building within India since the Prime Ministership of Nehru. Discussion covers the computing industry in India, initially an offshoot of the country’s atomic energy effort but also aligned with the government’s aggressive nationalist policies of “Digital India” to remove India’s reliance on international corporations such as IBM.

The four chapters of Part 3 look at the rise of the computing industry and culture in Poland, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand, examining how a mix of education, advertising, propaganda, and public debate were used to develop modern computing cultures in these countries. Finally, chapter 14 concludes the work by attempting to identify and discuss the broad patterns of development used by governments, organizations, and visionaries to encourage the adoption of computer cultures generally, and how this new computer culture has changed society.

The book includes a good table of contents, a thorough bibliography, a useful index, and a succinct introductory preface. Each chapter contains introductory and concluding paragraphs and, considering the diversity of the contributors, a surprising consistency in style. This is an excellent history of the rise of modern digital computing from an unusually global perspective.