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Summary: Research in the history of computers and cryptology
Review: Burke deserves terrific credit for detailed research into an untold story about several projects to invent computing machines useful for communications codebreaking and for national defense purposes, during World War II. This story is valuable for computer history and for insights into a little known aspect of U.S. military history. The book is painstakingly and abundantly documented. With careful attention to arcane topics, the book is not an easy read and would not appeal to many general readers. It has a narrow focus on several developmental computer projects; owing to their great technological difficulty and modest resources, it is not surprising that problems were encountered. Based on this limited context, the author under-appreciates Vannevar Bush, who was involved in spawning these projects. In a far bigger picture, Bush rendered extraordinary service to the United States during World War II, as leader of the National Defense Research Council, which harnessed the inventiveness of civilian scientists in meeting the technological imperatives of the war. Bush was a great inventor and scientific leader. Burke would surely have been helped had Pascal Zachary's fine biography of Bush, Endless Frontier (1997), then been available to him. Nevertheless, Burke's book represents valuable primary research on computer history, codebreaking, and military history. The author devoted years to researching this book. In so doing, he has rendered highly valuable service to the telling of history. The book sheds interesting light on the determined efforts of many Americans involved in cryptological causes and in computer development. This underlying story is inspiring and now better revealed.
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