History QUASSHed, 1957-1980

Abstract

Social scientists and historians trained in social science began importing quantitative methods and explicit models into history in the late 1950s. At first, many disciplinary leaders stoutly resisted the trend, but in the 1960s and 70s the major historical journals became increasingly receptive to statistical and mathematical pieces and the range and importance of work by quantifiers became impossible for historians to ignore. What defines the new subfield, how healthy is it, and where is it likely to go in the future? A review of recent work on critical elections, geographic mobility, and postbellum Southern economic history suggests that QUAntitative Social Scientific History (QUASSH) has the usual adolescent traumas, but that the diagnosis is favorable and the recommended therapy is an increase in the time spent contemplating the connections between theory and methods and more contact with mainline historians.