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Coding capitalism computers and the remaking of the postwar US economy Devin Kennedy
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Kennedy, Devin, author.
- Series:
- Columbia studies in the history of U.S. capitalism
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Capitalism--United States--History--20th century.
- Capitalism.
- Computers--United States--History--20th century.
- Computers.
- Computers--Economic aspects--United States.
- Electronic data processing--United States--History--20th century.
- Electronic data processing.
- Electronic data processing--Economic aspects--United States.
- United States--Economic conditions--1945-.
- United States.
- Information technology--Economic aspects--United States.
- Information technology.
- Capitalism--History.
- Computers--History.
- Computers--Economic aspects.
- Electronic data processing--History.
- Electronic data processing--Economic aspects.
- Genre:
- History
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource
- illustration
- map
- Place of Publication:
- Columbia University Press (Lightning Source), 2026.
- New York Columbia University Press [2026]
- Summary:
- "Long before Google, Amazon, or Microsoft, it was computer technology that shaped how Americans worked, how markets operated, and how businesses became big. Virtual Capital: Computing Power in the US Economy, 1947-1987 tells the history of American capitalism after World War II through a technology emblematic of its remaking: the computer. Historian Devin Kennedy shows how computing amplified entrenched economic interests and how the arc of computer history-the development of computer technologies and even computer science itself-was torqued by the needs of the big industrial firms and financial institutions that patronized it. In the 1950s, digital automation and database technologies aided managers in their pitched battles with labor; at the dawn of telecommunications, digital networks energized the formation of transcontinental industrial conglomerates; and computing systems accelerated national and international capital flows, providing in tandem the informational and ideological infrastructure for the market-oriented global economy of the 1970s and 1980s. Focusing on the computerization of the manufacturing and financial sectors and drawing on extensive research on the archives of corporations, engineers, the federal government, labor unions, civil society organizations, and financial institutions, Virtual Capital positions the history of the computer as central to our understanding of postwar capitalism in the United States"--Provided by publisher
- Contents:
- Introduction. The industrial roots of the digital revolution
- Visions of control
- Commanding the floor
- Minds, machines, and managers
- Wired for profit
- The market machine
- Virtual exchange
- A network of markets
- Nonstop
- Epilogue. "The machine broke down"
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on June 10, 2026)
- Other Format:
- Print version Kennedy, Devin. Coding capitalism
- ISBN:
- 9780231553957
- 0231553951
- 9780231566070
- 0231566077
- OCLC:
- 1594240828
- Publisher Number:
- CIPO000389342
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license
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