The New Urban History: Quantitative Explorations by American Historians

As part of the new consciousness concerning the history of the American city, younger historians, economists, and geographers working with quantitative methods on urban-historical problems were brought together at a conference sponsored by the History Advisory Committee of the Mathematical Social Science Board. The papers in this volume, products of the conference, represent the pioneer stage of quantitative exploration in United States urban history.

United by a common concern with the growth of cities in society and the effects of growth on the internal organization and related social order of cities, the papers deal with such topics as jobs, residences, neighborhoods, adjustment, status, accommodation, innovation, and location. The authors attempt to measure some of the attitudes and behavior of capitalists, workers, immigrants, and freedmen, and speculate on the ways in which households, firms, and assorted social groupings cope with changing physical and social environments.

The essays demonstrate the productive use of quantitative research techniques, ranging from simple enumeration of data in tabular form to sophisticated types of statistical hypothesis- testing and mathematical modeling.

Originally published in 1975.

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