A view from 20 year as a historian of computing

The author's reflections go back to the late 1970s when the electronic, stored program was itself only a few decades old and the challenge, in the history of computing field, was to convey computer history's significance and reach. The contemporary challenge is to maintain historical standards, objectivity, and distance while keeping abreast of technology's rapid changes. To survive, the field must also defend that the study of computing is separate from the computing that permeates modern life via the Web.