Quantitative history

Quantitative history is a method of historical research that uses quantitative, statistical and computer resources. It is considered a type of the social science history and has four major journals: Historical Methods (1967– ), Journal of Interdisciplinary History (1968– ), the Social Science History (1976– ), and Cliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution (2010– ). Quantitative historians use databases as their main sources of information. Large quantities of economic and demographic data are available in print format which can be converted into computer databases. The largest repository presently is the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) of the University of Michigan, which provides access to an extensive collection of downloadable political and social data for the United States and the world. Content analysis is a technique borrowed from journalism research whereby newspapers, magazines or similar sources are coded numerically according to a standardized list of topics. Economic historians use major data sets, especially those collected by governments since the 1920s. Historians of slavery have used census data, sales receipts and price information to reconstruct the economic history of slavery. Quantifiers study topics like voting behavior of groups in elections, the roll call behavior of legislators, public opinion distribution, and the occurrence rate of wars and legislation. Collective biography uses standardized information for a large group to deduce patterns of thought and behavior. Social historians using quantitative methods (sometimes termed "new social historians", as they were "new" during the 1960s) use census data and other data sets to study entire populations. Topics include demographic issues such as population growth rates, rates of birth, death, marriage and disease, occupational and education distributions, genealogy and migrations and population changes.