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Numbers and history: The dilemma of measurement

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References

  1. See particularly Clyde H. Coombs,A Theory of Data (New York, 1964), pp. 1–31.

  2. Donald J. Veldman'sFortran Programming for the Behavioral Sciences (New York, 1967) makes clear that even when historians are statistically adept, programs designed for and by behavioral scientists have limited historical applicability. This problem is discussed further in my review of Veldman's study inHistorical Methods Newsletter, 1 (1968), no. 3, pp. 12–13.

  3. On factor analysis see, for example, Hubert M. Blalock, Jr.,Social Statistics (New York, 1960), pp. 383–89. On Guttman scaling, see A. Douglas Price, “Are Southern Democrats Different? An Application of Scale Analysis to Senate Voting Patterns,” in Nelson Polsby, et al., eds.,Politics and Social Life (Boston, 1963), pp. 740–56. Two historical studies employing Guttman scaling are Thomas B. Alexander,Sectional Stress and Party Strength (Nashville, 1967) and Joel H. Silbey,The Shrine of Party (Pittsburgh, 1967). While to some extent both studies ignore the measurement problem, they nevertheless illustrate the potential of statistical models such as Guttman scaling for analyzing historical data.

  4. See, for example, R. J. Rummel, “Dimensions of Conflict Behavior Within Nations, 1946–1959,”Journal of Conflict Resolution, 10 (1966), pp. 65–73 and “Understanding Factor Analysis,”ibid., 11 (1967), pp. 440–78.

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  5. For a pioneering approach to this problem of inferring stimuli from testimonial evidence see Murray G. Murphey, “An Approach to the Historial Study of National Character,” inContext and Meaning in Cultural Anthropology (New York, 1965), pp. 144–63.

  6. Louis B. Wright and Marian Tinling, eds.,The Secret Diary of William Byrd (Richmond, 1941).

  7. See, for example, Hayward R. Alker, Jr.,Mathematics and Politics (New York, 1965), pp. 1–28.

  8. Two examples of what can be done with election statistics are S. Sidney Ulmer, “Stochastic Models in Political Analysis,” in John M. Claunch, ed.,Mathematical Applications in Political Science (Dallas, 1965), pp. 1–20 and Donald E. Stokes, “A Variance Components Model of Political Effects,”ibid., pp. 61–85.

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  1. University of Pennsylvania, USA

    Robert M. Zemsky (assistant professor of history)

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  1. Robert M. Zemsky
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Zemsky, R.M. Numbers and history: The dilemma of measurement. Comput Hum 4, 31–40 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02393448

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