The Apple II Age, Laine Nooney
The Apple II Age, Laine Nooney
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The Apple II Age
How the Computer Became Personal

Author: Laine Nooney

Narrator: Krystal Hammond

Unabridged: 11 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/25/2024

Synopsis

Skip the iPhone, the iPod, and the Macintosh. If you want to understand how Apple Inc. became an industry behemoth, look no further than the 1977 Apple II. Designed by the engineer Steve Wozniak and hustled into the marketplace by his Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, the Apple II became one of the most prominent personal computers of this dawning industry.

The Apple II was a versatile piece of hardware, but its most compelling story isn't found in the feat of its engineering, the personalities of Apple's founders, or the way it set the stage for the company's multibillion-dollar future. Instead, historian Laine Nooney shows, what made the Apple II iconic was its software. In software, we discover the material reasons people bought computers. The story of personal computing in the United States is not about the evolution of hackers—it's about the rise of everyday users.

Recounting a constellation of software creation stories, Nooney offers a new understanding of how the hobbyists' microcomputers of the 1970s became the personal computer we know today. The Apple II Age offers an unprecedented look at the people, the industry, and the money that built the microcomputing milieu—and why so much of it converged around the pioneering Apple II.

About Laine Nooney

Laine Nooney is assistant professor of media and information industries at New York University. Their research has been featured by outlets such as the Atlantic, Motherboard, and NPR. They live in New York City, where their hobbies include motorcycles, tugboats, and Texas hold 'em.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bjørn on January 06, 2024

I misled myself here. I thought it would be a book about Apple II. It's about the Apple II Age, as the title suggests. iWoz is where you (I) get to read about transistors. The Apple II Age is a dense read (it's published by the University of Chicago Press, so it's not exactly a shocker). There is a l......more

Goodreads review by Steve on April 29, 2023

Looks at the history of the creation and growth of the commercial software industry in the '80s, focusing on several companies and products for the Apple ][: VisiCalc, Mysterious House Adventure, Print Shop, and Spinnaker's Learning programs. This approach changes the focus of most of these historie......more

Goodreads review by Allan on January 21, 2024

This is a history of the inception of the personal computing industry in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It looks at both the characteristics of users like hobbyists and business users and the way businesses made and especially sold and marketed their products. After the first chapters lay out the e......more

Goodreads review by Murilo on March 21, 2025

This is an amazing book, but not for the reasons I picked it up. Its eye-opening perspective is completely different from other classics like Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer, and The Soul of a New Machine. This isn't a book about th......more

Goodreads review by Taishi on September 30, 2024

The personal computer’s evolution is shaped by historical events and context, as Laine Nooney highlights in this detailed study of the Apple II. Here, Nooney argues against the popular myth that microcomputers were designed for personal use from the start. Instead, they show how broader historical c......more

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