The book covers several historical and foundational models of artificial neural networks (ANNs): McCulloch-Pitts Neuron : The earliest simplified model of a neuron. Perceptron Networks : Single-layer networks used for linear classification. Adaline and Madaline
The PDF does an excellent job of breaking down the "Big Three" of early neural networks: introduction to neural networks using matlab 6.0 .pdf
If you are a working engineer who wants to truly understand backpropagation? This book (and MATLAB 6.0's toolbox) forces you to: The book covers several historical and foundational models