The Digital Hand: How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing, Transportation, and Retail Industries - Hardcover

Cortada, James W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195165888 ISBN 13: 9780195165883

Publisher: OUP USA, 2004

Synopsis

This book describes how computers were used in 16 American industries over the past half century to determine what were the critical uses, how technologies came into these industries, and how they were changed by it. This book asserts that computing profoundly changed the nature of work in these industries, creating the bedrock of the Information Age.

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Review

This book is by any standard an outstanding contribution to the field. . . there is a huge value in his richly detailed narrative. This set of books will be the standard source on demand-side computing for perhaps a generation. (Martin Campbell-Kelly, Business History Review)

This book is by any standard an outstanding contribution to the field. . . there is a huge value in his richly detailed narrative. This set of books will be the standard source on demand-side computing for perhaps a generation. (Martin Campbell-Kelly, Business History ReviewCortada has perhaps the deepest understandind of the growing and changing impact of computers in societ?)

Synopsis

In The Digital Hand, James W. Cortada combines detailed analysis with narrative history to provide a broad overview of computing's role in sixteen industries, accounting for nearly half of the U.S. economy. Beginning in 1950, when commercial applications of digital technology began to appear, Cortada examines the ways different industries adopted new technologies, as well as the ways their innovative applications influenced other industries and the U.S economy. In addition, to this account of computers' impact on industry, Cortada also demonstrates how industries themselves influenced the nature of digital technology. Managers, economists, and anyone interested in the history of modern business will appreciate this historical analysis of digital technology's many roles and its future possibilities in a wide array of industries. A detailed picture of what the infrastructure of the Information Age really looks like and how we got there, The Digital Hand is a sweeping survey of how computers transformed the American economy.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP USA
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195165888
• ISBN 13: 9780195165883
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 512