Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wtssw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-10T03:35:06.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

French Quantitative History: Problems and Promises

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Patrice Bourdelais
Patrice Bourdelais*
Affiliation:
Centre de Recherches Historiques, EHESS, Paris
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Due to the central position it assigns to the longue durée, the Annales school—impetus for and crossroads of historical debate—used quantitative methods from the beginning and granted them their patents of nobility. For some decades now, it has been inconceivable for good historical research in France not to devote an important part of its efforts to the measuring of phenomena. True, the Annales school has never spoken with a single voice; the changes that have occurred in its membership and in neighboring disciplines, as well as new historical sensibilities, have modified its original characteristics. The study directed by A Burguière of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales will soon report on the content and evolution of the themes, the network of contributors, and the intellectual climate that shaped the first generation of the Annales. Therefore this article limits itself to a rapid survey of publications, followed by an examination of the distinctive traits of the quantitative dimension of French historical work, the directions for and reasons behind new research. The picture must remain somewhat general because it focuses on only three major points: the preeminence of serial history over quantitative history; the underrepresentation of international comparative works, despite the example of F. Braudel; and the development of individual-level data banks, an important source for social and serial history.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , Spring 1984 , pp. 179 - 192
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.)

Footnotes

fn00

Editors’ Note: This article was translated by Hannelore L. Flessa-Jarausch.

References

Bobinska, C. and Goy, J. (1981) Les Pyrénées et les Carpates. XVIe-XXe siècles. Recherches franco-polonaises comparées. Cracow.Google Scholar
Bois, G. (1976) Crise du feodalisme. Paris: Presse de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiaues.Google Scholar
Bouchard, G. (1979) “Un Essai d’anthropologie régionale: l’histoire sociale du Saguenay au XIXe et XXe siècles.” Annales ESC 43: 106–125.Google Scholar
Bouchard, G. (1975) “L’Histoire démographique et le problème des migrations. L’exemple de Laterrière.” Histoire Sociale/Social History 3: 21–33.Google Scholar
Cameron, R. and Freedeman, C. E. (1983) “French economie growth: A radical revision.” Social Sci. History 1: 3–30.Google Scholar
Chaunu, P. (1978) La Mort à Paris, XVIe, XVIIe, XVIIIe siècles. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Chaunu, P. (1970) “Histoire sérielle, bilans et perspectives.” Revue Historique 494: 297–320.Google Scholar
Chaunu, P. (1964) “Histoire quantitative ou histoire sérielle.” Cahiers Vilfredo Pareto 3: 165–176.Google Scholar
Chartier, R. (1980) “Science sociale et découpage régional” Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales 35. Paris: Editions de Minuit.Google Scholar
Crouzet, F. (1966) “L’Angeleterre et la France au XVIIIe siècle.” Annales ESC 21: 254–291.Google Scholar
D’Angeville, A. (1836) Essai sur la statistique de la population française considérée sour quelques-uns de ses aspects physiques et moraux. Bourg-en Bresse: F. Dufour.Google Scholar
Farge, A. and Foucault, M. (1982) Le Désordre des familles. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Furet, F. (1971) “L’Histoire quantitative et la construction du fait historique.” Annales ESC 26: 63–75.Google Scholar
Garden, M. (1970) Lyon et les Lyonnais au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Goy, J. (1981) Actes du Colloque Franco-Irlandais d’Histoire rurale comparée de Dublin, Paris: EHESS.Google Scholar
Goy, J. and Wallot, J. P. (1981) Société rurale dans la France de l’Ouest et au Québec (XVII-XXe siècles). Montreal: EHESS.Google Scholar
Guerreau, A. (1981) “Analyse factorielle et statistiques classiques: le cas des ordres mendicants dans la France médiévale.” Annales ESC 36: 869–912.Google Scholar
Hareven, K. and Tilly, L. A. (1981) “Solitary Women and Family Mediation in American and French Textile Cities.” Annales de Démographie historique. Paris-La Haye: Mouton.Google Scholar
Le Bras, H. and Todd, E. (1981) L’Invention de la France. Paris: Librairie Generale Française.Google Scholar
Lebrun, F. (1971) Les Hommes et la mort en Anjou aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Paris-La Haye: Mouton.Google Scholar
Lepetit, B. and Royer, J. F. (1980) “Croissance et taille des villes: contribution à l’étude de l’urbanisation de la France au debut du XIXe siècle.” Annales ESC 35: 987–1009.Google Scholar
Le Roy Ladurie, E. (1973, 1978) Le Territoire de l’historien, Vols 1 and 2. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Le Roy Ladurie, E. (1969) “Un théoricien du dévelopement: Adolphe D’Angeville,” in L’Essai sur la statistique, introduction of the reprint of 1969. La Haye: Mouton.Google Scholar
Le Roy Ladurie, E. (1967) Histoire du climat depuis l’an mil. Paris: Flammarion.Google Scholar
Le Roy Ladurie, E. (1966) Les Paysans de Languedoc. Paris: Mouton.Google Scholar
Le Roy Ladurie, E. and Goy, J. (1982) Tithe and Agrarian History from the Fourteenth to the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.Google Scholar
Marczewski, J. (1961) Histoire quantitative de l’économie française. Paris: ISEA.Google Scholar
Marczewski, J. and Toutain, J. C. (1961) Le Produit de l’agriculture française de 1700 à 1958. Cahiers de l’ISEA 115, serie AF. Paris: ISEA.Google Scholar
Perrenoud, A. (1979) La Population de Genève XVI-XIXe siècles. Geneva-Paris: Julien-Champion.Google Scholar
Perrot, J. C. (1975) Genèse d’une ville moderne, Caen au XVIIIe siècle. Paris-La Haye: Mouton.Google Scholar
Van De Walle, E. (1974) The Female Population of France in the Nineteenth Century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Vilar, P. (1965) “Pour une meilleure compréhension entre économistes et historiens, Histoire quantitative ou econometrie rétrospective.” Revue Historique 233: 293–312.Google Scholar
Vovelle, M. (1973) Piété baroque et déchristianisation en Provence au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Pion.Google Scholar
Vovelle, M. (1979) Vision de la mort et de l’au-delà en Provence du XVe au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Cahier des Annales, A. Colin.Google Scholar