Review of Milestones in Analog and Digital Computing, 3rd ed by Herbert Bruderer

The book presents the major milestones of analog and digital computing. It was first published in German in 2015, followed by a significantly expanded two volume edition in 2018, and the third edition boasts added material and is now also available in English. The author exhaustively covers mechanical calculators, historical automata, and scientific instruments. In its detailed account of analog computing, this volume is surely unrivaled—the book discusses many groundbreaking analog devices, from the Antikythera (the first known astronomical calculator) to the Curta (the smallest mechanical parallel calculator), before venturing into the electronic era. The author not only compiles a historical guide to computing, he also offers detailed lists and tables that classify machines systematically: according to their function, their national origins, or according to where extant machines are collected or exhibited. The more recent past of digital computing is similarly more complex than it may at first appear. Who built the first computer? Who created the first stored-program calculator? What was the first compiler? It should be emphasized also that the author does not present a history of programming or of software—the accent remains firmly on hardware. Yet this book is addressed not only to the historians of technology or of science, archival curators or restoration experts, but also to anyone generally interested in the history of information processing and computer technology. The book is itself a milestone in computer history, and a much needed corrective to the tendency, both in industry and in academia, to see computing almost exclusively in terms of the near future. questions, beyond the superficial consolations of listicles and timelines. The information the author