Michael Halvorson

Halvorson grew up in Olympia, Washington. He received a B.A. degree in Computer Science from Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) in 1985, and MA and Ph.D. degrees in History from the University of Washington (1996, 2001). In a recent book, he discusses the formative influence of the liberal arts on his approach to technical writing and software systems.{{Cite book|title=Code Nation: Personal Computing and the Learn to Program Movement in America|last=Halvorson|first=Michael|publisher=ACM Books / Morgan & Claypool|year=2020|location=New York, NY / San Rafael, CA|pages=17|quote=I was lucky that my university training required a healthy dose of the liberal arts along with my computing classes. Both fields of study prepared me to tackle substantial research and writing projects in the years to come, and they were valued in the book publishing division.}}

In November 1985, Halvorson was hired as employee #850 at Microsoft in Bellevue, Washington, where he worked as a technical editor, acquisitions editor, and localization project manager.{{Cite journal|last=Hansen|first=Steve|date=April 3, 2011|title=One on one: From Microsoft to Martin Luther, and back again|url=https://issuu.com/pacific.lutheran.university/docs/scene-spring-2011|journal=Scene Magazine|volume=Spring 2011|pages=38, 40}}

Halvorson was an influential acquisitions editor at Microsoft Press during the early years of personal computing, acquiring and editing books from notable American technology writers such as Ray Duncan, Dan Gookin, Steve McConnell, Jerry Pournelle, Neil Salkind, and Van Wolverton. Within Microsoft's product teams, Halvorson worked as a localization project manager for the Visual Basic for MS-DOS 1.0 compiler (1992), contributing to the release of the product in the French and German languages.

Halvorson's first influential book was Learn BASIC Now, a Microsoft QuickBASIC programming primer co-authored by David Rygmyr. The book was published by Microsoft Press in 1989 and included a foreword by Bill Gates, who described Microsoft's plans for the BASIC language in future operating systems and application software.{{Cite book|title=Learn BASIC Now|last1=Gates|first1=Bill|last2=Halvorson|first2=Michael|last3=Rygmyr|first3=David|publisher=Microsoft Press|year=1989|isbn=9781556152405|location=Redmond, WA|chapter=Foreword|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/learnbasicnow0000halv}} Learn BASIC Now won the Computer Press runner-up prize for "Best How-To Book" published in 1989. In a review of the book, L. R. Shannon of the New York Times wrote, “For anyone who wants to learn something about programming, it would be hard to find an easier or more cost-effective source than Learn BASIC Now.”{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/16/science/peripherals-basic-beyond-simple.html|title=Peripherals; Basic Beyond Simple|last=Shannon|first=L. R.|date=January 16, 1990|work=The New York Times|access-date=4 January 2020}}

In 1990, a Macintosh version of Learn BASIC Now was published which included the Microsoft QuickBASIC Interpreter for Macintosh Plus, SE, and II systems on 3.5” diskettes. Learn BASIC Now was also bundled with six arcade-style games written in QBasic and distributed by Microsoft in a package called Microsoft Game Shop 1.0 (1990).{{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Tony |date=June 1991 |title=Microsoft Game Shop |journal=Compute! |volume=130 |pages=136–139}}

Halvorson later wrote a series of popular books on the emerging Microsoft Office software suite, including Running Microsoft Office for Windows 95, co-authored with Michael Young.{{Cite book|title=Running Microsoft Office for Windows 95 : in-depth reference and inside tips from the software experts|last=Halvorson, Michael.|date=1995|publisher=Microsoft Press|others=Young, Michael J.|isbn=1-55615-897-1|edition=Select|location=Redmond, Wash.|oclc=33079867}} In May 1999, Halvorson's Running Microsoft Office 2000 attempted to calm fears about the pending Y2K problem (or Millennium bug), which the authors believed was driven by popular hysteria.{{Cite book|title=Running Microsoft Office 2000 Premium|last1=Halvorson|first1=Michael|last2=Young|first2=Michael|publisher=Microsoft Press|year=1999|isbn=978-1572319363|location=Redmond, WA|pages=xxxix|quote=As you learn about the year 2000 problem, and prepare for its consequences, there are a number of points we’d like you to consider. First, despite dire predictions, there is probably no good reason to prepare for the new millennium by holing yourself up in a mine shaft with sizable stocks of water, grain, barter goods, and ammunition. The year 2000 will not disable most computer systems, and if your personal computer was manufactured after 1996, it’s likely that your hardware and systems software will require little updating or customizing.}} A series of textbooks introducing Microsoft Works and Microsoft Office followed to help popularize Microsoft's integrated software suites and the idea that learning to use them efficiently was a suitable subject for college students.{{Cite book|last=Halvorson, Michael.|title=Microsoft works 2000 : illustrated complete|date=2000|publisher=Course Technology|isbn=0-619-01742-2|location=Cambridge, MA|oclc=45791669}}{{Cite book|last=Halvorson, Michael.|title=Microsoft Office 2000 : illustrated brief|date=2000|publisher=Course Technology|isbn=0-7600-6155-6|edition=Professional|location=Cambridge, Mass.|oclc=42875125}}

As the Microsoft Windows platform gained momentum, Halvorson's Microsoft Visual Basic Step by Step book series popularized graphical user interface (GUI) programming by introducing and exploring Visual Basic, a product that simplified the process of Web development, game programming, and creating business applications.{{Cite book|title=Microsoft Visual Basic 2013 step by step|last=Halvorson, Michael.|date=2013|publisher=O'Reilly Media|isbn=978-0-7356-6704-4|location=Sebastopol, Calif.|oclc=818414972}} Canadian-American software developer Tyler Menezes credits the slot machine program in Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Step by Step (1998) for introducing him to video game development and coding initiatives.{{Cite book|title=Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional step by step|last=Halvorson, Michael.|date=1998|publisher=Microsoft Press|isbn=1-57231-809-0|location=Redmond, Wash.|oclc=38910348|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/microsoftvisualb00halv}}

Ten editions of Visual Basic Step by Step were published between 1995 and 2013, during the years that Visual Studio became a leading integrated development environment (IDE) and the Windows platform gained multimedia, networking, and enterprise features.

In 2020, Halvorson published Code Nation: Personal Computing and the Learn to Program Movement in America (ACM Books / Morgan & Claypool), a history of digital transformation and computing that emphasizes the influence of technical literacy debates in America and the range of experiences that hobbyist and professional developers had when creating software for early microcomputers, IBM PCs and compatibles, the Apple Macintosh, and Unix systems. An ethical component of Halvorson's work is his call to increase equity and access to programming instruction so that more may benefit from the opportunities afforded by digital electronic computing.{{Cite book|last=Halvorson|first=Michael|title=Code Nation: Personal Computing and the Learn to Program Movement in America|publisher=ACM Books / Morgan & Claypool|year=2020|isbn=978-1450377577|location=New York, NY / San Rafael, CA|pages=13}}

Since 2003, Halvorson has been a professor of History at Pacific Lutheran University.

In 2009, he was appointed a research fellow at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, Germany. His work there resulted in the European history monograph Heinrich Heshusius and Confessional Polemic in Early Lutheran Orthodoxy (2010), a history of Lutheran ecclesiastical networks, popular preaching, and the political intrigues of late Reformation Germany.{{Cite book|title=Heinrich Heshusius and confessional polemic in early Lutheran orthodoxy|last=Halvorson, Michael.|date=2010|publisher=Ashgate|isbn=978-0-7546-6470-3|location=Farnham, Surrey, England|oclc=694147960}}. Reissued in paperback in 2024 by Routledge.{{Cite news|url=https://issuu.com/pacific.lutheran.university/docs/scene-winter-2010|title=Accolades|date=November 17, 2010|work=Scene Magazine|access-date=January 4, 2020|page=7}} His textbook, The Renaissance: All That Matters (2014), narrates the patterns and achievements of the Renaissance movement in Europe, opening at a graduation ceremony in Cambridge, England. He has also published articles in Archive for Reformation History, Lutheran Quarterly, Sixteenth Century Journal, and Stanford Social Innovation Review.

In 2016, Halvorson was appointed Benson Family Chair of Business and Economic History at PLU. In 2017, he co-founded an Innovation Studies program that exposes students to influential ideas about design thinking, social innovation, and the history of technology.{{Cite news |last=Powers |first=Zach |date=June 5, 2022 |title=The Key to Innovation |url=https://www.plu.edu/news/archive/2022/06/05/mike-halverson/ |access-date=August 16, 2024 |work=Resolute}} A book that presents his ideas about using technology responsibly in social impact contexts is This Little World: A How-To Guide for Social Innovators (2024), co-authored with Shelly Cano Kurtz.{{Cite book |last1=Halvorson |first1=Michael |title=This little world: a how-to guide for social innovators |last2=Kurtz |first2=Shelly Cano |date=2024 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-032-73731-7 |location=Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY}} In early 2025, This Little World was shortlisted for Business Book of the Year (Change & Sustainability) by The Business Book Awards (UK).{{cite web |title=Shortlist 2025 |url=https://www.businessbookawards.co.uk/2025-shortlist/ |website=The Business Book Awards |access-date=April 23, 2025}}

• Michael J. Halvorson and Shelly Cano Kurtz, This Little World: A How-To Guide for Social Innovators (Abingdon, UK, and New York: Routledge, 2024).
• Michael J. Halvorson, Code Nation: Personal Computing and the Learn to Program Movement in America (New York: ACM Books / Morgan & Claypool, 2020).
• Michael Halvorson, The Renaissance: All That Matters (London: Hodder and Stoughton / New York: McGraw-Hill, 2014).
• Michael Halvorson, Microsoft Visual Basic 2013 Step by Step (Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media, 2013).
• Michael J. Halvorson, Heinrich Heshusius and Confessional Polemic in Early Lutheran Orthodoxy (St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History, Ashgate Publishing, England, 2010). Reissued by Routledge in paperback in 2024.
• Michael J. Halvorson and Karen E. Spierling, eds., Defining Community in Early Modern Europe (St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History, Ashgate Publishing, England, 2008).
• Robert P. Ericksen and Michael J. Halvorson, eds., A Lutheran Vocation: Philip A. Nordquist and the Study of History at Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA: Pacific Lutheran University Press, 2005).
• Michael Halvorson, Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Professional Step by Step, Microsoft Press (Redmond, WA, 2002).
• Michael Halvorson, Microsoft Works 2000: Illustrated Complete, Course Technology Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 2000).
• Michael Halvorson, Microsoft Office 2000: Illustrated Brief, Professional ed., Course Technology Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 2000).
• Michael Halvorson and Michael Young, Running Microsoft Office 2000 Professional, Microsoft Press (Redmond, WA, 1999).
• Michael Halvorson, Learn Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Now, Microsoft Press (Redmond, WA, 1999). Includes full working model of Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 on CD-ROM with tutorials.
• Michael Halvorson, Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Step by Step, Microsoft Press (Redmond, WA, 1998).
• Michael Halvorson, Microsoft Office 97 Professional Edition, Brief Edition, Course Technology Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 1998).
• Michael Halvorson and Michael Young, Running Microsoft Office 97, Microsoft Press (Redmond, WA, 1997).
• Michael Halvorson and Michael Young, Running Microsoft Office for Windows 95, Microsoft Press (Redmond, WA, 1996).
• Michael Halvorson, Microsoft Works 4 for Windows 95 Illustrated, Course Technology Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 1996).
• Michael Halvorson, Learn Visual Basic Now, Microsoft Press (Redmond, WA, 1996). Includes full working model of Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 on CD-ROM with tutorials.
• Michael Halvorson, Microsoft Visual Basic 4 Step by Step, Microsoft Press (Redmond, WA, 1995).
• Michael Halvorson and David Rygmyr, Running MS-DOS QBasic, Microsoft Press (Redmond, WA, 1991).
• Michael Halvorson and David Rygmyr, Learn BASIC for the Apple Macintosh Now, Microsoft Press (Redmond, WA, 1990).
• Michael Halvorson, JoAnne Woodcock, and Robert Ackerman, Running UNIX, Microsoft Press (Redmond, WA, 1990).
• Michael Halvorson and David Rygmyr, Learn BASIC Now, Microsoft Press (Redmond, WA, 1989).

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Category:Living people

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