Although not short, Nathan Ensmenger's "The Computer Boys Take Over" is a fantastic history of the complicated and diverse roots of software. In the intro he st

Although not short, Nathan Ensmenger's "The Computer Boys Take Over" is a fantastic history of the complicated and diverse roots of software. In the intro he states, like the comment above, that the history of software tend toward linear histories of hardware development. In his book however, he shows how management strategies, training centers, universities, corporations, and the programmers themselves attempt to control the meaning and production of software. The first chapter does a great job of summarizing this trajectory.