Course Readings

Recommended Readings for AI history class as of 2026. Required Readings under syllabus. Note this is a *global* history class.

Monographs & Secondary Sources

Labor and Automation
  1. Acemoglu, Daron. When Does Labor Scarcity Encourage Innovation? NBER Working Paper No. w14809. March 2009.
    https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1369045
  2. Pomeranz, Kenneth. The great divergence: China, Europe, and the making of the modern world economy. Princeton University Press, 2000.
  3. Mokyr, Joel. The lever of riches: Technological creativity and economic progress. Oxford University Press, 1990.
  4. Brynjolfsson, Erik, et al. "Generative AI at Work." The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 140, no. 2, 2025, pp. 889-942. arXiv, https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2304.11771.
  5. Prout, Jerry. Chasing Automation: The Politics of Technology and Jobs from the Roaring Twenties to the Great Society. Cornell UP, 2022.
  6. Frey, Carl Benedikt. The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation. Princeton UP, 2020.
  7. Allen, Robert C. The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective. Cambridge UP, 2009.
Early Modern and Religion
  1. Harrison, Peter. The Bible, Protestantism, and the rise of natural science. Cambridge University Press, 1998.
  2. Riskin, Jessica. The restless clock: A history of the centuries-long argument over what makes things tick. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.
  3. Kang, Minsoo. Sublime Dreams of Living Machines: The Automaton in the European Imagination. Harvard University Press, 2011.
  4. Cave, Stephen, et al., editors.AI Narratives: A History of Imaginative Thinking about Intelligent Machines. Oxford UP, 2020.
  5. Mayor, Adrienne. Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology. Princeton UP, 2018.
  6. Berlinski, David. The Advent of the Algorithm: The Idea that Rules the World. Harcourt, 2000.
  7. Coeckelbergh, Mark. Artificial Religion: On AI, Myth, and Power. MIT Press, 2026.
19th C
  1. Fuegi, John, and Jo Francis. “Lovelace & Babbage and the Creation of the 1843 ‘Notes’.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 25, no. 4, 2003, pp. 16–26.
  2. Essinger, James. Jacquard's Web: How a Hand-Loom Led to the Birth of the Information Age. Oxford University Press, 2004.
First and Second Industrial Revolutions
  1. Landes, David S. The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present. Cambridge UP, 1969.
  2. Smil, Vaclav. Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867–1914 and Their Lasting Impact. Oxford UP, 2005.
  3. Jonnes, Jill. Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World. Random House, 2003.
Cold War, Geopolitics
  1. Leslie, Stuart W. The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford. Columbia University Press, 1993.
  2. Mahnken, Thomas G. Technology and the American Way of War since 1945. Columbia University Press, 2010.
  3. Roland, Alex. Delta of Power: The Military-Industrial Complex. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021.
  4. Geoghegan, Bernard Dionysius.Code: From Information Theory to French Theory. Duke University Press, 2023.
  5. Logan, William A. T. A Technological History of Cold-War India, 1947–1969: Autarky and Foreign Aid. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.
  6. Slotten, Hugh R. Beyond Sputnik and the Space Race: The Origins of Global Satellite Communications. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022.
  7. Petter, Victor.Balkan Cyberia: Cold War Computing, Bulgarian Modernization, and the Information Age Behind the Iron Curtain. MIT Press, 2023.
  8. Chandrashekar, S. China’s Space Programme: From the Era of Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping. Springer Nature Singapore, 2022.
  9. Daniels, Mario, and John Krige. “Beyond the Reach of Regulation? ‘Basic’ and ‘Applied’ Research in the Early Cold War United States.” Technology and Culture, vol. 59, no. 2, 2018, pp. 269–299.
  10. Lukasik, Stephen J. “Why the Arpanet Was Built.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 33, no. 3, 2011, pp. 4–21.
Silicon Valley, Bell Labs, ...
  1. O'Mara, Margaret. The code: Silicon Valley and the remaking of America. Penguin Press, 2019.
  2. Gertner, Jon. The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation. Penguin Press, 2012.
  3. Hiltzik, Michael A. Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age. HarperCollins, 2000.
  4. Katz, Barry M. Make It New: A History of Silicon Valley Design. MIT Press, 2015.
  5. Harmon, Paul. “The Expert Systems Business: How It Grew and Died.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 44, no. 1, 2022, pp. 31–43.
Mid-Twentieth Century
  1. Soni, Jimmy, and Rob Goodman. A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age. Simon & Schuster, 2017.
  2. Nahin, Paul J. The Logician and the Engineer: How George Boole and Claude Shannon Created the Information Age. Princeton University Press, 2013.
  3. Leonard, Robert. Von Neumann, Morgenstern, and the Creation of Game Theory: From Chess to Social Science, 1900–1960. Cambridge University Press, 2010.
  4. Kline, Ronald R. The Cybernetics Moment: Or, Why We Call Our Age the Information Age. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015.
  5. Pickering, Andrew. The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches of Another Future. University of Chicago Press, 2010.
  6. Copeland, B. Jack. Turing: Pioneer of the Information Age. Oxford UP, 2012.
  7. Rid, Thomas. Rise of the Machines: A Cybernetic History. W. W. Norton, 2016.
  8. Ragas, José. “How to Design a (Cybernetic) Revolution: Chileans Remember Salvador Allende’s Techno-Utopian Project.” Technology and Culture, vol. 65, no. 2, 2024, pp. 667–674.
  9. Kline, Ronald R. “Cybernetics, Automata Studies, and the Dartmouth Conference on Artificial Intelligence.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 33, no. 4, 2011, pp. 5–16.
  10. Copeland, B. Jack. “Early AI in Britain: Turing et al.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 45, no. 3, 2023, pp. 19–31.
  11. Gonçalves, Bernardo. "Turing's Test, a Beautiful Thought Experiment." IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1109/MAHC.2024.3432278.
Robots & Autonomous Vehicles
  1. Abnet, Dustin A. The American Robot: A Cultural History. University of Chicago Press, 2020.
  2. Robertson, Jennifer. Robo Sapiens Japanicus: Robots, Gender, Family, and the Japanese Nation. University of California Press, 2018.
  3. Kröger, Fabian. From Automated to Autonomous Driving: A Transnational Research History on Pioneers, Artifacts and Technological Change (1950-2000). Springer, 2024.
  4. Frumer, Yulia. “Manufacturing Hands: Robot Fingers and Human Labour in Post-War Japan.” History and Technology, vol. 38, no. 2-3, 2022, pp. 239–256.
Policy, Social Frameworks
  1. Bradford, Anu. The Brussels effect: How the European Union rules the world. Oxford University Press, 2020.
  2. Dommann, Monika. Authors and Apparatus: A Media History of Copyright. Translated by Sarah Pybus, Cornell UP, 2019.
  3. Canadelli, Elena, et al., editors. Behind the Exhibit: Displaying Science and Technology at World's Fairs and Museums in the Twentieth Century. Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2019.
Communication and Language AI
  1. Mullaney, Thomas S. The Chinese Typewriter: A History. MIT Press, 2017.
  2. Chalmers, David J. "Could a Large Language Model Be Conscious?" Boston Review, 9 Aug. 2023, www.bostonreview.net/articles/could-a-large-language-model-be-conscious/
  3. Potter, Simon J., et al. The Wireless World: Global Histories of International Radio Broadcasting. Oxford UP, 2022.
  4. Binder, Jeffrey M. Language and the Rise of the Algorithm. University of Chicago Press, 2022.
  5. Yeang, Chen-Pang. Transforming Noise: A History of Its Science and Technology from Disturbing Sounds to Informational Errors, 1900–1955. Oxford University Press, 2023.
  6. Ciston, Sarah, et al.Inventing ELIZA: How the First Chatbot Shaped the Future of AI. MIT Press, 2026.
  7. Canales, Jimena. "The Media of Relativity: Einstein and Telecommunications Technologies."Technology and Culture, vol. 56, no. 3, July 2015, pp. 610–645.Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.2015.0097.
  8. Fickers, Andreas, and Pascal Griset. Communicating Europe: Technologies, Information, Events. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
  9. Huacuja Alonso, Isabel. Radio for the Millions: Hindi-Urdu Broadcasting Across Borders. Columbia University Press, 2023.
  10. Yao, Miaofeng. “Before Utility: The MingKwai Typewriter as Democratic Alternative.” Technology and Culture, vol. 67, no. 2, 2026, pp. 371–401.
  11. Abdou, Mostafa. “A Long History: From Universal Language to Artificial Intelligence.” Technology and Culture, vol. 67, no. 2, 2026, pp. 333–370.
  12. Bell, Sarah A. Vox ex Machina: A Cultural History of Talking Machines. MIT Press, 2024. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/14208.001.0001.
  13. Koanantakool, Hugh Thaweesak, et al. "Computers and the Thai Language." IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 31, no. 1, 2009, pp. 46-61.
Data-fication
  1. Bouk, Dan. How Our Days Became Numbered: Risk and the Rise of the Statistical Individual. University of Chicago Press, 2015.
  2. McKelvey, Fenwick.SimPolitics: America’s Quest to Solve Politics with Computers. MIT Press, 2026.
  3. Heyck, Hunter.Age of System: Understanding the Development of Modern Social Science. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015.
  4. Lemov, Rebecca.Database of Dreams: The Lost Quest to Catalog Humanity. Yale University Press, 2015.
  5. Volić, Ismar.Making Democracy Count: How Mathematics Improves Voting, Electoral Maps, and Representation. Princeton University Press, 2024.
Culture
  1. Newman, Michael Z. Atari Age: The Emergence of Video Games in America. MIT Press, 2017.
  2. Johnson, Ann, and Johannes Lenhard.Cultures of Prediction: How Engineering and Science Evolve with Mathematical Tools. MIT Press, 2024.
Hardware, Infrastructure
  1. Miller, Chris. Chip War: The fight for the world's most critical technology. Simon & Schuster, 2022.
  2. Van Laak, Dirk. Lifelines of Our Society: A Global History of Infrastructure. Translated by Erik Butler, MIT Press, 2023.
  3. Soca, Fernanda A., and Mariana E. Di Bello. “Fragile Foundations: Tracing Argentina’s Semiconductor Saga amid Institutional Turmoil.” Technology and Culture, vol. 65, no. 2, 2024, pp. 555–570.
  4. Dhaliwal, Ranjodh Singh. “The Legality of Logistics: On Techno-Orientalism and Geopolitics in Semiconductor Production.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 47, no. 1, 2025, pp. 63–77.
Internet
  1. Milligan, Ian. Averting the Digital Dark Age: How Archivists, Librarians, and Technologists Built the Web a Memory. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024.
  2. Scheirer, Walter J. A History of Fake Things on the Internet. Stanford University Press, 2023.
  3. Frana, Philip L. “Before the Web There Was Gopher.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 26, no. 1, 2004, pp. 20–41.
Late 20th C
  1. Poirier, Lindsay. “Neat Versus Scruffy: How Early AI Researchers Classified Epistemic Cultures of Knowledge Representation.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 47, no. 2, 2025, pp. 7–19.

Primary Sources

  1. Von Neumann, John. The Computer and the Brain. Yale University Press, 1958.
  2. Shannon, Claude E. "Programming a Computer for Playing Chess." Philosophical Magazine, ser. 7, vol. 41, no. 314, Mar. 1950, pp. 256–75.
  3. Von Neumann, John, and Oskar Morgenstern. Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Princeton University Press, 1944.
  4. Shannon, Claude E. "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits." Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, vol. 57, no. 12, 1938, pp. 713-723.
  5. Shannon, Claude E. "A Mathematical Theory of Communication." The Bell System Technical Journal, vol. 27, no. 3, 1948, pp. 379-423.
  6. Wiener, Norbert. Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. MIT Press, 1961.
  7. Wiener, Norbert. God & Golem, Inc.: A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion. MIT Press, 1964.
  8. LeCun, Yann, et al. "Deep Learning." Nature, vol. 521, no. 7553, 2015, pp. 436–444. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539.
  9. Minsky, Marvin, and Seymour Papert. Perceptrons: An Introduction to Computational Geometry. MIT Press, 1969.
  10. The Bell System Technical Journal
  11. Shockley, William. Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors with Applications to Transistor Electronics. D. Van Nostrand Company, 1950.
  12. Elman, Jeffrey L. "Finding Structure in Time." Cognitive Science, vol. 14, no. 2, Apr.-June 1990, pp. 179-211.
  13. Čapek, Karel. Karel Čapek's "R.U.R." and the Vision of Artificial Life. Edited by Jitka Čejková, translated by Štěpán S. Šimek, MIT Press, 2023.
  14. Babbage, Charles.Passages from the Life of a Philosopher. Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, 1864.Project Gutenberg, 2018, www.gutenberg.org/files/57532/57532-h/57532-h.htm.
  15. Posselt, E. A. The Jacquard Machine Analyzed and Explained: With an Appendix on the Preparation of Jacquard Cards, and Practical Hints to Learners of Jacquard Designing. Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, 1887. Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54193.
  16. Maxwell, James Clerk. "On Governors." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, vol. 16, 1868, pp. 270-283. Royal Society Publishing, doi:10.1098/rspl.1867.0061.
  17. Chomsky, Noam. "A Review of B. F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior." Language, vol. 35, no. 1, 1959, pp. 26-58.
  18. Sutton, Richard. "The Bitter Lesson." Incomplete Ideas, 13 Mar. 2019, www.incompleteideas.net/IncIdeas/BitterLesson.html.

Relevant Computer Science/AI Readings

  1. Goodfellow, Ian, et al. Deep Learning. MIT Press, 2016.
  2. MacKay, David J. C. Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
  3. Manning, Christopher D., and Hinrich Schütze. Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing. MIT Press, 1999.
  4. Jurafsky, Daniel, and James H. Martin. Speech and Language Processing. 3rd ed. draft, 2024.
  5. Sammet, Jean E. Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals. Prentice-Hall, 1969.

Other Readings

  1. Harari, Yuval Noah. Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. Random House, 2024.
  2. Noble, Safiya Umoja. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York University Press, 2018.
  3. Hao, Karen. Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI. Penguin Press, 2025.
  4. D'Ignazio, Catherine, and Lauren F. Klein. Data Feminism. MIT Press, 2020.
  5. Harding, Verity. AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI's Future and Save Our Own. Princeton UP, 2024.
  6. Bastani, Aaron. Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto. Verso Books, 2019.
  7. Striphas, Ted. Algorithmic Culture Before the Internet. Columbia University Press, 2023.
  8. Wilson, Elizabeth A. Affect and Artificial Intelligence. University of Washington Press, 2010.
  9. Finn, Ed. What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing. MIT Press, 2017.
  10. Damaj, Issam W., Palwasha W. Shaikh, and Hussein T. Mouftah. “Distinctive Landmarks in the History of Computing and Engineering: The Past, The Present, and The Future.” International Journal for the History of Engineering and Technology, vol. 94, no. 2, 2024, pp. 89–107.
  11. Domingos, Pedro. The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World. Basic Books, 2015. Kindle ed.
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