“A sedate, hesitant, circumspect, little behavioral revolution” : The case of New Political History 1957–1970

• The presentation seeks to historicise current approaches to Digital History by focusing on New Political History, a branch of US political history that emerged in the late 1950s. While its proponents were especially enthusiastic about the merits of computation and quantification, it also sparked a heated debate in the field, culminating in the president of the American Historical Association's insistence "Nor will the historian worship at the shrine of that Bitch-goddess, QUANTIFICATION [sic]." The presentation looks at New Political History from three different angles: First, the role of actors and institutions for its development is described, then the impact of media technologies during this phase is assessed and finally 'external' factors such as changing funding policies and industry concerns are examined. The findings will finally be used in a comparison to today's situation in order to discuss the broader issue of continuity vs. discontinuity and to connect to the conferences question whether Digital History can be seen as a Field, a Method or just a Phase.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Teknikhistoria (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- History of Technology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Medievetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Media Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Quantitative History

Digital Humanities

Media and Communication Studies

Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)