Numbers Game or Scientific History? Exactitude and Justice in 1970s Cliometrics and in Digital History Today.
By the time of the publication of Robert W. Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman's Time on the Cross in 1974, quantitative history had become an important, yet controversial, trend around the globe. Time on the Cross , an economic history of slavery in the American South, prompted a fierce debate among his...
| Publicado en: | History of Humanities Vol. 7; no. 2; pp. 133 - 147 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Chicago Press
Fall2022
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=160001990&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 160001990 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 23793163 JDN6 jtl: History of Humanities issn: 23793163 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Fall2022 vid: 7 iid: 2 pid: 415 pub: University of Chicago Press artinfo: ui: 160001990 10.1086/721305 ppf: 133 ppct: 14 formats: tig: atl: Numbers Game or Scientific History? Exactitude and Justice in 1970s Cliometrics and in Digital History Today. aug: au: von Schöning, Antonia affil: Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany su: Statistical methods in information science Digital humanities Economic history United States history Antislavery movements Digital learning sug: subj: Statistical methods in information science Digital humanities Economic history United States history Antislavery movements Digital learning ab: By the time of the publication of Robert W. Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman's Time on the Cross in 1974, quantitative history had become an important, yet controversial, trend around the globe. Time on the Cross , an economic history of slavery in the American South, prompted a fierce debate among historians. The issue at stake was the use of quantitative methods and the role of computers in what was called "cliometrics." Fogel and Engerman claimed that their monograph replaced the uncertainties of traditional, narrative history with hard scientific facts, verified by computers and mathematical techniques. But critics found outright errors in their use and interpretation of the quantitative data and pointed to the danger of dehumanizing the study of history if it is left to a machine. This essay retraces the debate and critically analyzes the promises of exactitude formulated in cliometric discourse in order to ask what lessons can be learned for the challenges digital humanities faces today. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2022 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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