Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution

Steven Levy's classic book about the original hackers of the computer revolution is now available in a special 25th anniversary edition, with updated material from noteworthy hackers such as Bill Gates, Mark Zukerberg, Richard Stallman, and Tim O'Reilly. Hackers traces the exploits of innovators from the research labs in the late 1950s to the rise of the home computer in the mid-1980s. It's a fascinating story of brilliant and eccentric nerds such as Steve Wozniak, Ken Williams, and John Draper who took risks, bent the rules, and took the world in a radical new direction. "Hacker" is often a derogatory term today, but 40 years ago, it referred to people who found clever and unorthodox solutions to computer engineering problems -- a practice that became known as "the hacker ethic." In this book, Levy takes you from the true hackers of MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club to the DIY culture that spawned the first personal computers -- the Altair and the Apple II -- and finally to the gaming culture of the early '80s. From students finagling access to clunky computer-card machines to engineers uncovering the secrets of what would become the Internet, Hackers captures a seminal period in history when underground activities blazed a trail for today's digital world. This book is not just for geeks -- it's for everyone interested in origins of the computer revolution.