The Computers that Made the World

This book tells the story of the birth of the technological world we now live in. It chronicles how computers reshaped World War II. And it does it all through the origins of 12 influential computers built between 1939 and 1950.

In 1940, a computer was someone who ploughed through gruelling calculations each day. A decade later, a computer was a buzzing machine that filled a room. This book tells the story of how our world was reshaped by a dozen such computers — and the geniuses that brought them into being, from Alan Turing to John von Neumann.

You'll discover how these pioneers shortened World War II, and hidden truths that governments didn't want you to know. But this isn't just a story about how these computers came to be, or the fascinating people behind them: it's a story about how a new world order, built on technology, sprang into being.

This book is a world tour through the modern history of computing, and it begins in 1939 with the first electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff-Berry computer (ABC). From there, the book moves on to the Berlin-born Zuse Z3 and the Bell Labs’ Complex Number Calculator, before we enter the World War II era with Colossus, Harvard Mark I, and then ENIAC, the first general-purpose digital computer.

The story of computing in World War II takes us through Germany, UK, and the US, before covering the explosive post-war years when anything seemed possible. You’ll discover the fascinating stories behind the Manchester Baby, EDSAC, EDVAC, UNIVAC, Princeton IAS, and Alan Turing’s Pilot ACE and the birth of artificial intelligence.

In The Computers that Made the World, you'll not only learn about the computers that shaped the world we live in, but what happened behind the scenes.

© 2025 Raspberry Pi Press (Ebook): 9781916868083

Release date

Ebook: 29 July 2025