edition, the text was not just translated but fundamentally recast
in order to fit the particular needs of Anglo-American scholars. As
copresident of the International Commission for the Application
of Quantitative Methods in History (INTERQUANT), Konrad Ja-
rausch of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has re-
written the introductory and concluding chapters as well as produced
new data-base sections. As director of the statistical laboratory of
the Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of
North Carolina, Kenneth Hardy has penned fresh statistical chap-
ters. As a doctoral student in nineteenth-century American history,
Dale Steinhauer has compiled two U.S. data sets, listed in appendix
A, which provide a consistent empirical basis for the examples in
data processing and statistical analysis. Indebted to countless con-
versations on both sides of the Atlantic, this interdisciplinary vol-
ume itself reflects the cooperative style and international discourse
on quantitative methods in history.

While intended as a working introduction, this book, in impor-
tant respects, tries to go further and offer fresh impulses to scholars
who have some prior quantitative experience. For novices the text
starts with background information on the scope of quantitative
history and historical computing, but the general chapters also
critically reflect on the proper role of quantitative methods in his-
tory for the more advanced readers. While the data-base section
concentrates on the basics of formalized research necessary for
quantitative work, it discusses the coding process and more compli-
cated problems of data transformation and linkage as well. The sta-
tistical parts systematically build upon the traditional fundamen-
tals and introduce new analytical techniques for qualitative
variables which are especially important for historians. The pio-
neering texts of two decades ago opened up exciting vistas for quan-
tification. But the subsequent rapid development of hardware and
software as well as of methods and research has outdated many
earlier formulations, demanding a new attempt at synthesis. To si-
lence postmodernist doubts, the present volume intends to convey
a broader and more mature concept of quantitative methods as they
become increasingly useful and essential for historical research.

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