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> "Every virtual machine today is imitating in software what we was directly in the hardware in 1961. That's one of the reasons I say we don't have a field. The reason we don't have a field is because none of you know this. It'd be like a physicist not knowing what Newton had done." ~paraphrasing around 52:45

As someone that did not know and would certainly like to learn more about the history of computing, what books / resources would you recommend?

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I'd recommend going through "Early history of Smalltalk" and "The Dream machine". First covers Kay's work and Smalltalk - how it started, what was the reasoning behind it. I'm still in progress with the second one, but it gives pretty deep dive in history of computing, covering a lot about personalities behind the field and their work.

I would add "Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age" by Michael Hiltzik.

The Innovators by Walter Isaacson and Where Wizards Stay Up Late by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon are excellent.

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