Words and Power: Computers, Language, and U.S. Cold War Values (Hardback or Cased Book)

When viewed through a political lens, the act of defining terms in natural language arguably transforms knowledge into values. This unique volume explores how corporate, military, academic, and professional values shaped efforts to define computer terminology and establish an information engineering profession as a precursor to what would become computer science.

• investigates how language standardization contributed to the professionalization of computer science as separate from mathematics, electrical engineering, and physics
• examines traditions of language standardization in earlier eras of rapid technology development around electricity and radio
• highlights the importance of the analogy of "the computer is like a human" to early explanations of computer design and logic
• traces design and development of electronic computers within political and economic contexts
• foregrounds the importance of human relationships in decisions about computer design

This in-depth humanistic study argues for the importance of natural language in shaping what people come to think of as possible and impossible relationships between computers and humans. The work is a key reference in the history of technology and serves as a source textbook on the human-level history of computing. In addition, it addresses those with interests in sociolinguistic questions around technology studies, as well as technology development at the nexus of politics, business, and human relations.