Digital State: The Story of Minnesota’s Computing Industry

Accounts of the early events of the computing industry–the Turing machine, the massive Colossus, the ENIAC computer–are well-told tales, and equally well known is the later emergence of Silicon Valley and the rise of the personal computer. Yet there is an extraordinary untold middle history–with deep roots in Minnesota. From the end of World War II through the 1970s, Minnesota was home to the first computing-centered industrial district in the world.