Review: Counterfeit Capital: Searching for a Silver Lining in Bernadette Longo's Spurious Coin    

Dr. Bernadette Longo, Ph.D., uses the metaphor of devalued currency to trace some of the roots in technological history for technical writing's lack of intellectual and cultural capital. She ingeniously incorporates early threads of management and industrial technology, like the formation of the railroad, in an attempt to contextualize her research. Academics must view Longo's text, Spurious Coin, as just one branch of what must be a webbed tree of intersecting social attitudes towards knowledge definition and science. In understanding the gaps in Longo's narrative, people interested in technical writing might find her book to act as a launch pad for better defining the questions guiding their own research. In this review, I will focus on some of the important gaps I see in Longo's research methodology as she historically situates the emergence of engineering as a discipline and then as the determining factor in technical communication's subjugated position within the academy and industry.

Trim, Michelle. Journal of Computer Documentation (2001). Articles>Reviews>Documentation>History

Review: Farewell, Netscape, but I Suppose It's Time

Since it's been a decade since Netscape was relevant, I guess it was overdue. But that doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye to an old friend, no matter how long it's been since you had any fun together.

Connoly, P.J. Software Development Times (2008). Articles>Reviews>History>Web Browsers

Review: The Hidden History of Information Management

What strategies has society employed to collect, manage, and store information, even with the constant threat of oversupply, and still make this information accessible and meaningful to people over time?

Goodman, Bob. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Reviews>Information Design>History

Review: Reshaping Technical Communication: New Directions and Challenges for the 21st Century  

Ever wonder about the relationship between academia and the corporate world? Or if you are on the corporate side (as I am), have you wondered why academia operates as it does? (And vice versa.) If so, Reshaping Technical Communication: New Directions and Challenges for the 21st Century offers great insights that may help you gain an understanding of how each world operates, why they operate as they do, and how the two worlds influence and can alter the future of technical communication.

Staples, Jeff. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>TC>History