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Quantitative Skills for Historians

Author: Mark Freeman

Type: Research Guide

 Quantitative Skills for Historians

This guide suggests ways in which historians and students of history can appreciate the importance and value – and limitations – of numbers in history, and to overcome their fears of numbers through the integration of small amounts of quantitative work into history courses and independent research. The intention here is not to set out a curriculum for a course on quantification in history. Some universities offer this to undergraduates, and many postgraduate history students are required by their universities, or more usually by funding bodies, to undergo quantitative methods training. Some of the exercises in this guide may be of some use in such a course, but the focus is on exercises and ideas that could be adapted to existing history courses and basic methods which can be integrated into student research. Useful textbooks for quantification in history are listed in the bibliography.


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Related Files

 

(PDF Document) Guide

(PDF Document) Introduction to MS-Excel for Historians

(PDF Document) Harris Exercise

(Excel Spreadsheet) Harris Exercise Data

Population: the 19th-century census and the teaching of history (temporarily unavailable)