In The Digital Hand, James W. Cortada combines detailed analysis with narrative history to provide a broad overview of computing's role in sixteen industries, accounting for nearly half of the U.S. economy. Beginning in 1950, when commercial applications of digital technology began to appear,
Cortada examines the ways different industries adopted new technologies, as well as the ways their innovative applications influenced other industries and the U.S economy. In addition, to this account of computers' impact on industry, Cortada also demonstrates how industries themselves influenced
the nature of digital technology. Managers, economists, and anyone interested in the history of modern business will appreciate this historical analysis of digital technology's many roles and its future possibilities in a wide array of industries. A detailed picture of what the infrastructure of the
Information Age really looks like and how we got there, The Digital Hand is a sweeping survey of how computers transformed the American economy.

In The Digital Hand, James W. Cortada combines detailed analysis with narrative history to provide a broad overview of computing's role in sixteen industries, accounting for nearly half of the U.S. economy. Beginning in 1950, when commercial applications of digital technology began to appear, Cortada examines the ways different industries adopted new technologies, as well as the ways their innovative applications influenced other industries and the U.S economy. In addition, to this account of computers' impact on industry, Cortada also demonstrates how industries themselves influenced the nature of digital technology. Managers, economists, and anyone interested in the history of modern business will appreciate this historical analysis of digital technology's many roles and its future possibilities in a wide array of industries. A detailed picture of what the infrastructure of the Information Age really looks like and how we got there, The Digital Hand is a sweeping survey of how computers transformed the American economy.

Review

"This book is by any standard an outstanding contribution to the field. . . there is a huge value in his richly detailed narrative. This set of books will be the standard source on demand-side computing for perhaps a generation. —Martin Campbell-Kelly, Business History Review

"Cortada has perhaps the deepest understandind of the growing and changing impact of computers in society—this series is off to a strong start as a definitive treatment of their roles in specific economic sectors."—Communication Booknotes Quarterly

James W. Cortada is the author of a dozen books on Spain, including “Spain in the Nineteenth-Century World: Essays on Spanish Diplomacy, 1789 1898”, and two previous publications on the Spanish Civil War. He is also the author of dozens of articles on modern European and Spanish history. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.