================ HES POSTING ======================== 
 
HESsians, 
 
Professor Nathan Rosenberg of Stanford will give the keynote address, on 
Charles Babbage and Complexity, at the upcoming HES Conference (Friday, 
1998-06-19 17:30).  
 
Professor Rosenberg's essay, "Babbage: pioneer economist" (chapter 2 of 
_Exploring the Black Box_ Cambridge UP, 1994), is available at 
        http://www.ex.ac.uk/BABBAGE/rosenb.html 
among much else at the University of Exeter Department of Computer Science   
"Babbage Pages" 
        http://www.ex.ac.uk/BABBAGE/ 
 
Material on Charles Babbage (1791-1871), engineer and computer scientist, 
is "everywhere" on the web; use your favorite search engine.  Babbage's 
principle work in political economy, "On the Economy of Machinery and 
Manufactures", which is nearly or wholly ignored at most Babbage sites, is 
available in the McMaster Archive and its mirrors; see our directory of 
E-Texts 
        http://www.eh.net/HisEcSoc/Resources/E_texts.shtml 
(or from the HisEcSoc homepage select Resources; then E-Texts). 
 
 
Nathan Rosenberg received the Leonardo da Vinci medal in 1996: 
 
   The highest recognition from the Society for the History of 
   Technology is the Leonardo da Vinci Medal, presented to an 
   individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the history 
   of technology through research, teaching, publication, and other 
   activities. 
 
For much more on the Society for the History of Technology, see 
        http://www.auburn.edu/academic/societies/shot/ 
 
Here is the Stanford University press release (1996) concerning the SHOT 
award to Nathan Rosenbeg:  
 
   Technology historians honor economist Rosenberg.   
 
   STANFORD -- Nathan Rosenberg, professor of economics, recently was 
   awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Medal of the Society for the History 
   of Technology. "Rosenberg has almost single-handedly changed the 
   way economists and economic historians think about technology and 
   the nature of economic change," the society's statement said. "He 
   has convinced a substantial number of scholars . . . that in order 
   to make sense of economic growth, we must make sense of technology, 
   and that the only way we can comprehend technology is to study it 
   historically." A 1963 essay that Rosenberg wrote on the machine 
   tool industry was especially influential, the statement said, in 
   opening up "the black box" of technology's role in economic 
   processes. Rosenberg joined the Stanford faculty in 1974. 
 
 
----Paul 
 
Paul Wendt, Watertown MA 
Asst.editor, HES e-info services (history of economics), Eh.Net 
        [log in to unmask] 
        http://www.eh.net/HisEcSoc 
 
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