Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution

Hackers is a history of various hacking projects during three phases of the technology revolution: mainframe PCs (in primarily the 1950s and 1960s), personal PCs (1970s and 1980s), and gaming (1980s). The book is dated, but Steven Levy has a Feynman-like appreciation for the role of play and curiosity in intellectual breakthroughs.