Steven Levy's Hackers is a foundational work of the history of computing. Levy spends a lot of time on the MIT hackers of the 1960s and 1970s, the group that hatched Lisp, Richard Stallman and the free software movement, and also a lot of time on the Bay Area hackers that kick-started the microcomputer revolution. Certainly it's not a comprehensive guide to the full range of computing history, but it's an important and engaging look the beginnings of where we are today.
I second that, Hackers was a great read. I read it back in the late 90s and then again a couple years ago and was surprised how much of it came back to me. He's one of the few tech journalists and writers who actually gets it.
I read it early in life and it changed my life. By the time the O’Reilly anniversary edition came around I was there to witness some of the new interviews of people in the first book.
