A landmark anthology tracing the birth of digital computing through the original papers.

Turing, von Neumann, Shannon and others in their own words, then spun through Randell’s framing to show how the theory became the machines. You see architectures emerging argument by argument, as questions about logic, memory, and programmability harden into hardware. 

This isn’t pop-history; it’s primary source material from the foundational decades of computer science. It is widely cited in computing history and now increasingly scarce in hardcover.

Second edition, first printing. A key volume for anyone interested in how modern computing was invented on paper before it was built in metal.