There have been a number of exciting new books in the history of computing that have been published in the past year. The most recent is Charles Yood’s Hybrid Zone: Computers and Science at Argonne National Laboratory, 1946-1992 (Docent Press, 2013).

The Hybrid Zone arrived in the mail at a timely moment. As part of the recent dedication of Indiana University’s new Big Red II Supercomputer, the current director of Science at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility of Argonne National Laboratory gave a public lecture on the history and future of computing in the sciences. And so it has been a week of supercomputing all around…

I plan on writing more about Yood’s book sometime in the near future, but for the time being, here is what I blurbed for the book cover:

This book provides an insightful, accessible, and nuanced history of the complex interactions between electronic computing, computer science, and the immensely influential scientific and intellectual practices known collectively as computational science. In Hybrid Zone, Yood has managed to combine deep historical scholarship with a broadly synthetic perspective that will be of interest to scholars, practitioners, and general audiences interested in understanding the relationship between technological innovation, scientific practices, and the social history of computing.

The announcement for the book can be found at Docent Press. Find it on Amazon here.

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