================ 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 ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]