The Computer Boys Take Over: Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise (History of Computing)

331 Pages·2010·13.185 MB·English

by  Nathan L. Ensmenger

The Computer Boys Take Over
History of Computing
William Aspray, editor
John Agar The Government Machine: A Revolutionary History of the
Computer
William Aspray John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing
William Aspray and Paul E. Ceruzzi, editors The Internet and American Business
Charles J. Bashe, Lyle R. Johnson, John H. Palmer, and Emerson W. Pugh IBM ’ s
Early Computers
Martin Campbell-Kelly From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A
History of the Software Industry
Paul E. Ceruzzi A History of Modern Computing
I. Bernard Cohen Howard Aiken: Portrait of a Computer Pioneer
I. Bernard Cohen and Gregory W. Welch, editors Makin ’ Numbers: Howard
Aiken and the Computer
Nathan Ensmenger T he Computer Boys Take Over: Computers, Programmers,
and the Politics of Technical Expertise
John Hendry Innovating for Failure: Government Policy and the Early British
Computer Industry
Michael Lindgren Glory and Failure: The Difference Engines of Johann M ü ller,
Charles Babbage, and Georg and Edvard Scheutz
David E. Lundstrom A Few Good Men from Univac
Ren é Moreau The Computer Comes of Age: The People, the Hardware, and the
Software
Arthur L. Norberg Computers and Commerce: A Study of Technology and
Management at Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company, Engineering Research
Associates, and Remington Rand, 1946– 1957
Emerson W. Pugh Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology
Emerson W. Pugh Memories That Shaped an Industry
Emerson W. Pugh, Lyle R. Johnson, and John H. Palmer I BM ’ s 360 and Early
370 Systems
Kent C. Redmond and Thomas M. Smith From Whirlwind to MITRE: The R& D
Story of the SAGE Air Defense Computer
Alex Roland with Philip Shiman Strategic Computing: DARPA and the Quest
for Machine Intelligence, 1983– 1993
Ra ú l Rojas and Ulf Hashagen, editors The First Computers: History and
Architectures
Dorothy Stein Ada: A Life and a Legacy
John Vardalas The Computer Revolution in Canada: Building National
Technological Competence, 1945– 1980
Maurice V. Wilkes Memoirs of a Computer Pioneer
The Computer Boys Take Over
Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of
Technical Expertise
Nathan Ensmenger
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2010 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by
any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or
information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the
publisher.
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@mitpress.mit.edu
This book was set in Sabon by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited. Printed and
bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ensmenger, Nathan, 1972–
The computer boys take over : computers, programmers, and the politics of
technical expertise / Nathan Ensmenger.
p. cm. — (History of computing)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-262-05093-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Computer programming. 2. Computer programmers. 3. Software
engineering — History. 4. Computer software — Development — Social aspects.
I. Title.
QA76.6.E58 2010
005.1 — dc22
2009052638
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Deborah and the boys

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction: Computer Revolutionaries 1
2 The Black Art of Programming 27
3 Chess Players, Music Lovers, and Mathematicians 51
4 Tower of Babel 83
5 The Rise of Computer Science 111
6 The Cosa Nostra of the Data Processing Industry 137
7 The Professionalization of Programming 163
8 Engineering a Solution 195
9 Conclusions: Visible Technicians 223
Notes 245
Bibliography 287
Index 315

Acknowledgments
This book represents the culmination of a long period of research,
writing, and intellectual exchange that has benefi ted enormously from
the contributions of numerous historians from around the globe. The
history of the computing community, although small in number, is great
in spirit, and is as welcoming a collection of scholars as I have ever
encountered.
Two of the senior members of this community have proven particu-
larly supportive of me and my work. William Aspray has served as an
adviser and mentor from almost the beginning of my career, and has
been unfailingly generous in his time, energy, and encouragement. The
late Michael Mahoney, whose wit and erudition will be sorely missed
by the community, also served as a model of unselfi sh scholarship. It
would be impossible to detail the many ways in which both of these
scholars have informed, and continue to inform, my own thinking and
scholarship.
This book started as a dissertation, and owes much to the friends and
advisers who guided it through its earliest incarnations. Emily Thompson,
Robert Kohler, and Walter Licht served as patient readers of many, many
early drafts, and without their kind and enlightened counsel this project
would never have made it past its infancy. Josh Buhs, Thomas Haigh,
Atsushi Akera, and the rest of my graduate school cohort listened for
years to my vague musings on the eccentricities of early computer pro-
grammers, and their feedback helped refi ne my thoughts and arguments.
Edward Bell and the rest of the crew at E. J. Bell and Associates, by
providing me with frequent opportunities to pick up consulting work,
made it possible for me to fi nish graduate school without going under
fi nancially.
My colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania have been patient and
gracious sounding boards and mentors. Ruth Schwartz Cowan, who