Socio-epistemic Networks and the Development of Historical Computing

This paper will propose a long-term, transnational, perspective on the role of technology in the making of history, before discussing a key example: the circulation of technological knowledge and expertise among transnational networks of computing historians in the 1960s-1970s; it asks how these networks were constituted, the role of politics in their shaping, and what influence on historical knowledge production they may have had. In doing so it seeks to chart processes of field formation before the advent of the history and computing movement of the 1980s. The paper will highlight how a focus on knowledge circulation can help us understand technology’s impact on historical knowledge production in the 20th century.