Before the Computer fully explores the data processing industry in the United States from its nineteenth-century inception down to the period when the computer became its primary tool. As James Cortada describes what was once called the "office appliance industry," he challenges our view of the digital computer as a revolutionary technology. Cortada interprets reliance on computers as a development within an important segment of the American economy that was earlier represented largely by such instruments as typewriters, tabulating machines, adding machines, and calculators. He also describes how many of the practices of the office appliance industry evolved into those of the computer world. Drawing on previously unavailable industry archives, the author adds to our understanding of IBM's early history and offers short corporate histories of firms that include NCR, Burroughs, and Remington Rand. Focusing on the United States but also including comparative material on Europe and Asia, Before the Computer will be a unique source of knowledge about the companies that built office equipment and their enormous impact on economic life.

Product Description: The book offers guidance to aspiring historians at every stage and in every walk of life, from practical advice on tackling and organizing projects to recommendations for finding and using resources of all kinds, whether at the local library or historical society or on the world wide web...read more

Product Description: During the Spanish Civil War, foreign military officers wrote highly elaborate reports of their experiences at the front. One was attaché Col. Stephen O. Fuqua of the U.S. Army, who had once held the rank of major general. His presence was highly unusual, for most military observers were less-experienced captains, majors, and lieutenant colonels...read more

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Product Description: This is an annual publication, designed as an anthology and reference, to keep the people interested in implementing quality management up-to-date with thoughts and ideas in the field. The book includes a selection of articles and chapters from several different current books and periodicals...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: Both anthology and reference, The Quality Yearbook combines original and reprinted articles to discuss current thoughts, ideas, and practices in the field of quality management. With a new section on E-commerce, additional material on Six Sigma, and an updated reference section that includes coverage of recent quality award winners and latest sources of information on quality-related topics, this latest edition supplies perspective on where quality management stands today -- and what the future holds...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This fifth annual edition of The ASTD Training and Performance Yearbook gives readers the best articles and reference information of the past year from leading training industry periodicals so that trainers can stay current with the changes and cutting-edge thinking in their field...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: Editors Woods and Cortada provide Trainers, consultants and human resource professionals with the best articles on the training industry of the year. All the current thinking and the latest in performance improvement innovations have been compiled in a single handy volume...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This updated 2000 edition helps people keep up to date with the latest new techniques and measurements in the field of quality management. It includes a selection of articles and chapters from several current books and periodicals...read more

Product Description: In this dynamic book, based on the most effective strategies of IBM and other market leaders, managers will learn to successfully transform their organizations into a business prepared to compete in a networked age. Mainframes, client servers, PCs, networks, e-business, the Internet, databases, technical management--indeed, in the brave new business world facing today's firms only one thing is certain: change...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This revised annual edition of the text contains selected articles and reference information of the year for the training industry. The guide also provides a directory of contact information for key organizations, conferences and periodicals within the industry. (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This collection of articles by the foremost experts on Knowledge Management today is a must-have for the bookshelf of anyone interested in or currently practicing Knowledge Management. It contains 40 articles, many appearing here for the first time, covering topics such as knowledge-based strategies, organizational learning, and knowledge tools, techniques, and processes...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)