Review: What the Dormouse Said

What the Dormouse Said is the story of the very early days of the computer revolution, and of how the zeitgeist of California in the sixties affected the direction taken by early computing. While there’s been much written about the personal computer industry of the seventies and eighties, the late fifties and early sixties haven’t received all that much attention despite the groundbreaking work done during that era.

John Markoff has done a fantastic research job for What the Dormouse Said, and as usual writes with economy and grace. The problem with What the Dormouse Said is that Markoff covers too much ground—there are so many characters and so many threads in the book that it becomes overwhelming and difficult to follow.

That being said, it’s still very much worth reading if you’re interested in the history of computing.