A Bibliographic Guide to the History of Computer Applications, 1950-1990 [Book Reviews]

This volume, the third of a series James Cortada has prepared for Greenwood Press, offers further tantalizing information about sources available in the history of computing. The annotated bibliography is divided in two parts, the first for the period 1950-1965 and the second for 1966-1990. Within each section, the entries are divided alphabetically by subject (accounting, agriculture, airline reservation systems, banking, etc.) and then alphabetically by author. There is no table of contents listing the subject headings, but there is a thorough index. Sources cited range from the journal Theatre Crafts to the periodical American City to the more familiar Datamation. Cortada does not include reports on computer applications from annuals such as Data Processing Yearbook and has managed only limited coverage of publications by computer manufacturers. The book focuses on literature published in the United States. These limitations `noted, one can point out that this bibliography will intrigue anyone trying to trace the ways in which the computer became a part of 20th-century life.