Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-hqlzj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-26T22:02:36.539Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Theories and Quantification in History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Jürgen Kocka
Jürgen Kocka*
Affiliation:
Bielefeld University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

How do theory-oriented history and quantitative history relate to each other? According to Morgan Kousser, theory and methodology—meaning statistical and mathematical methodology for quantitative work—“are like the Emperor and his new clothes; without the one, you have an empty suit; without the other, a nude old man” (Kousser, 1977). I disagree. There is, on the one hand, quantitative historical work without much theory. On the other hand, there exists good theoretical history of a basically nonquantitative character. Whereas quantitative history can only gain by becoming more theoretical, theory orientation does not always lead to quantification.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , Spring 1984 , pp. 169 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1984 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Borchardt, K. (1979) “Der ‘property Rights’—Ansatz in der Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Zeichen für eine systematische Neuorientierung des Faches?” pp. 140–156 in Kocka, and Nipperdey, (eds.) Theorie und Erzählung in der Geschichte. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag.Google Scholar
Chandler, A. D. Jr., (1962) Strategy and Structure. Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Elias, N. (1969) Über den Prozess der Zivilisation. Soziogenetische und psychologische Untersuchungen. Bern: Francke-Verlag.Google Scholar
Faber, K. G. (1979) “Ausprägungen des deutschen Historismus.” Historische Zeitschrift 228:1–22.Google Scholar
Faber, K. G. (1974) Theorie der Geschichtswissenschaft. Munich: Beck-Verlag.Google Scholar
Gerschenkron, A. (1965) Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Iggers, G. G. (1968) The German Conception of History. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Kocka, J. (1980) “Theory and social history: recent developments in West Germany.” Social Research 47: 426–457.Google Scholar
Kocka, J. (1977) Theorien in der Praxis Historikers. Special issue of Geschichte and Gesellschaft No. 3. Goöttmgen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Koselleck, R., Brunner, O. and Conze, W. [eds.] (1972) Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe. Historisches Lexikon zur politisch-sozialen Sprache in Deutschland. Stuttgart I: xiii–xxvii, Klett-Verlag.Google Scholar
Koselleck, R., Mommsen, W. J. and RÜsen, J. [eds.] (1977) Objektivität und Parteilichkeit. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag.Google Scholar
Kousser, J. M. (1977) “The agenda for social science history.” Social Science History 1: 383–391.Google Scholar
Mommsen, W. J. (1979) “Die Mehrdeutigkeit von Theorien in der Geschichtswissenschaft,” pp.334–320 in Kocka, and Nipperdey, (eds.) Theorie und Erzählung in der Geschichte. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag.Google Scholar
Moore, B. Jr., (1966) Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
North, D. C. and Thomas, R. P. (1973) The Rise of the Western World: A New Economic History. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Pollard, S. (1981) Peaceful Conquest: The Industrialization of Europe 1760-1970. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Puhle, H. J. (1979) “Theorien in der Praxis des vergleichenden Historikers,” pp. 119–136 in Kocka, and Nipperdey, (eds.) Theorie und Erzählung in der Geschichte. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag.Google Scholar
Redlich, F. (1971) Steeped in Two Cultures. New York.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, H. (1967) Grosse Depression und Bismarckzeit. Wirtschaftsablauf, Gesellschaft und Politik in Mitteleuropa. Berlin: de Gruyter-Verlag.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, A. M. (1937) “What American social history is.” Harvard Educ. Rev. 7: 61.Google Scholar
Schulin, E. (1979) Traditionskritik und Rekonstruktionsversuch. Studien zur Entwicklung von Geschichtswissenschaft und historischem Denken. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Singer, J. D. and Small, M. (1982) Resort to Arms: International and Civil Wars, 1816-1980. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Stone, L. (1979) “The revival of narrative: reflections on a new old history.” Past and Present 68: 3–24.Google Scholar
Weber, M. (1968a) “Die ‘Objektivität’ sozialwissenschaftlicher und sozialpolitischer Erkenntnis,” pp. 146–214 in Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre. Tübingen: Mohr-Verlag.Google Scholar
Weber, M. (1968b) Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretative Sociology. New York: Bedminster Press.Google Scholar
Wehler, U. -U. (1980) Historische Sozialwissenschaft und Geschichtsschreibung. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Wehler, U. -U. (1969) Bismarck und der Imperialismus. Cologne, Kiepenheuer and Witsch.Google Scholar