| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry. By Martin Campbell-Kelly. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. xvi, 372 pp. $29.95, ISBN 0-262-03303-8.)
I tried to do it and thought it could not be done. But Martin Campbell-Kelly has written a highly useful, arguably seminal, history of one of the world's most important industries. Overcoming many research hurdles, Campbell-Kelly has created a scholarly yet highly readable book on the software industry that is suitable for use in undergraduate and graduate computer, information systems, and business history courses. It will also prove attractive to the general public, and it will serve as an important springboard for further research.	1
Campbell-Kelly's focus is justifiably on the United States and on the period from the mid-1950s to approximately 1995. The United States was the first nation to generate companies that sold software to others because, it is claimed, in the 1950s its government sponsored the development of expensive military command and control systems. With that head start and through maintaining a lead in computer manufacturing and use, the United States has remained the dominant force in the commercial software industry—although its share has been shrinking. As a good historian, the author avoided dealing with the too-recent years after the mid-1990s. The Web does play a role in the book, however.	. . .

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