Compiled by David Hemmendinger.

David Grier, then Assistant Editor-in-Chief, introduced the think-piece column in the July-Sept. 2000 issue. Its first paragraph set the scene:

In the early days of the computer industry, one company clung to the word "think" as a corporate touchstone, a reminder to its employees and customers of the power of new ideas. The Think Piece of the Annals of the History of Computing is intended to remind students of the computing era of the importance of approaching their study with fresh insight. Its authors are asked to explore new ways of examining computing machinery and its social impact, suggest new subjects that may be profitable for study, or even introduce new concepts that may have been overlooked in the rapid pace of change.

The Jan.-March 2004 issue, which was entitled "25 Years of Computer History," was the first to list Think Piece as a department.

Vol 22, 2000

Jul-Sep: Whither the History of Computing, David A. Grier

Oct-Dec: The Politician as the Patron, Jonathan Coopersmith

Vol 23, 2001

Jan-Mar: Making History: New Directions in Computer Historiography, Paul, N Edwards

Apr-Jun: Is the Annals at Risk of Falling Behind?, James W. Cortada

Jul-Sep: Hands on the Machine, Janet Abbate

Vol 24, 2002

Jan-Mar: Software Preservation: Accumulation and Simulation, Martin Campbell-Kelly

Apr-Jun: Membership Has Its Partisans, Jonathan Coopersmith

Jul-Sep: Twin Pillars of Computing, Martin Campbell-Kelly

Oct-Dec: Datamation, Annals, Slashdot, and Tomorrow's History, Paul Ceruzzi

Vol 25, 2003

Jan-Mar: Preserving the Software Industry's Past, Burton Grad

Apr-Jun: Before the Internet, There Was Cable, Jennifer S. Light

Jul-Sep: The Great Machine Theory of History, David A. Grier

Oct-Dec: The Computer: From John von Neumann to Irma S. Rombauer, David A. Grier

Vol 26, 2004

Jan-Mar: Power to the People: Toward a Social History of Computing, Nathan Ensmenger

Vol 28, 2006

Jan-Mar: Toward International Computing History, Corinna Schlombs

Apr-Jun: Looking at Technology through Industry Eyes, James W. Cortada

Jul-Sep: The Materiality of the Internet, Paul E. Ceruzzi

Oct-Dec: What Should We Collect to Preserve the History of Software?, Len Shustek

Vol 29, 2007

Jan-Mar: Mapping Cyberspace: The Image of the Internet, Tara Krueger

Apr-Jun: What Makes a PC? Thoughts on Computing Platforms, Standards, and Compatibility, James Sumner

Jul-Sep: Computers as Ethical Artifacts, Nathan Ensmenger

Oct-Dec: Pushing Boundaries in the History of Computing, Brent Jesiek

Vol 30, 2008

Jan-Mar: Revolution and Resistance: Rethinking Power in Computing History, Rebecca Slayton

Apr-Jun: Following Digital Ripples, Kevin L. Borg

Jul-Sep: A Trip down Memory Lane? New Challenges from Other Disciplines, Janet Delve

Oct-Dec: Repurposing Turing's "Human Brake", Mar Hicks

Vol 31, 2009

Jan-Mar: Software as History Embodied, Nathan Ensmenger

Apr-Jun: Preserving Records of the Past, Today, James W. Cortada

Oct-Dec: On the Absence of Obsolescence, Scott M. Campbell

Vol 32, 2010

Jan-Mar: Cold War Politics: Taiwanese Computing in the 1950s and 1960s, Honghong Tinn

Apr-Jun: Technology in the Political Landscape, Christopher McDonald

Jul-Sep: Promoting the Prosaic: The Case for Process-Control Computers, Jonathan Aylen

Oct-Dec: A Question of Scale: Networks, Systems, and Practice, Jonathan Aylen

Vol 33, 2011

Jan-Mar: Programming and Planning, David A. Grier

Apr-Jun: Familiar Concepts, Unfamiliar Territory, George Royer

Jul-Sep: Control in the History of Computing: Making an Ambiguous Concept Useful, Gustav Sjoblom

Oct-Dec: From Computer Celebrities to Historical Biography, Nathan Ensmenger

Vol 34, 2012

Jan-Mar: Stating the Field: Institutions and Outcomes in Computer History, Andrew Meade McGee

Apr-Jun: Ownership and the History of American Computing, Gerardo Con Diaz

Jul-Sep: Standards, Networks, and Critique Andrew L. Russell

Oct-Dec: Collecting the History of the Software Industry, Burton Grad & Luanne Johnson

Vol 35, 2013

Jan-Mar: De-Brogramming the History of Computing, Mar Hicks

Apr-Jun: Machines Who Write, Stephanie Dick

Jul-Sep: Computation, Materiality, and the Global Environment, Nathan Ensmenger

Oct-Dec: Computers, Information, and Everyday Life, William Aspray

Vol 36, 2014

Jan-Mar: Simple Problems, Evan Hepler-Smith

Apr-Jun: Toward a History of Social Computing: Children, Classrooms, Campuses, and Communities, Joy Rankin

Jul-Sep: Are Historians Failing to Tell the Real Story about the History of Computing? Paul E. Ceruzzi

Oct-Dec: Was Algol 60 the First Algorithmic Language? Helena Durnová & Gerard Alberts

Vol 37, 2015

Jan-Mar: Augmentative, Alternative, and Assistive: Reimagining the History of Mobile Computing and Disability, Meryl Alper

Apr-Jun: Information Society, Domains, and Culture, William Aspray

Jul-Sep: Toward a Hermeneutics of Data, Amelia Acker

Oct-Dec: Historicizing Internet Use in China and the Problem of the User Figure, Angela Xiao Wu

Vol 38, 2016

Jan-Mar: Ask Your Doctor... About Computers, Joseph November

Apr-Jun: Postcolonial Histories of Computing, Fabian Prieto-Ñañez

Jul-Sep: Meaning and Persuasion: The Personal Computer and Economic Education, Caroline Jack

Oct-Dec: On the Cruelty of Really Writing a History of Machine Learning, Aaron Plasek

Vol 39, 2017

Jan-Mar: Eternal October and the End of Cyberspace, Bradley Fidler

Apr-Jun: How to Look: Apprehension, Forensic Craft, and the Classification of Child Exploitation Images, Mitali Thakor

Jul-Sep: Simulation and “Seduction” at the Policy Interface, Kevin T. Baker

Oct-Dec: Do Computers Follow Rules Once Followed by Workers? Björn Westergard

Vol 40, 2018

Jan-Mar: Algorithms under the Reign of Probability, Theodora Dryer

Apr-Jun: Critical Failure: Computer-Aided Instruction and the Fantasy of Information, Roderic Crooks

Oct-Dec: Cryptography, Capitalism, and National Security, Bradley Fidler

Vol 41, 2019

Jan-Mar: The Virtual Wall of the Fourth Amendment, Chris Andoh & Andreas Godderis

Vol 43, 2021

Jan-Mar: Collecting Computing History is Everyone's Job, Burton Grad

Jul-Sep: Cripping the History of Computing, Di Wu

Oct-Dec: Addressing the Question “What is a Program Text?” via Turing Scholarship, Edgar G. Daylight

Oct-Dec: Logic, Code, and the History of Programming, Mark Priestley

Oct-Dec: Mathematics, Logic, and Engineering in Computing, Peter J. Denning & Matti Tedre

Vol 44, 2022

Jan-Mar: History of Computing Industry Infrastructure, Burton Grad

Apr-Jun: From the Gold Rush to the Colonization of Mars: How Silicon Valley Imagines Away the Working Class, Jeannette Alden Estruth

Jul-Sep: Why Historians Should Pay More Attention to the Social Histories of Objects and What They Can Learn From These, James W. Cortada

Vol 45, 2023

Oct-Dec: Dissecting Data: History of Data as History of the Body, Andrew S. Lea

Vol 47, 2025

Jan-Mar: In Defense of Model-Makers: Adding a New Point to the Computer Conservation Continuum, Guy Fedorkow, Jochen Viehoff, & David Woitkowski

Oct-Dec: Computing Racial Order, Jason Ludwig

Vol 48, 2026

Jan-Mar: Weird A.I., Benjamin Lindquist