20 November
The application of quantified techniques in the study of history can be traced back to Frederick Jackson Turner who emphasized the study of economic history in the 1890s. University of Iowa historians William O. Aydelotte, Allan G. Bogue, and Samuel P. Hays followed this tradition and made signification contributions to the use of quantitative techniques in the 1950s and early 1960s. The work by these historians became informally known as the “Iowa School” of quantitative history, bringing the State University of Iowa — especially its History department — national recognition.
Quantitative history applies techniques of statistical analysis on historical data. Literary or other source material is supplemented with quantitative data, such as information from business or courthouse records, census or other demographic data, or the voting records of government officials. According to Bogue, an inspiration for the practices of using quantitative evidence was historian and former colleague of Bogue and eventually Hays, Lee Benson, whose landmark study, The Concept of Jacksonian Democracy, quantitatively analyzed ethno-cultural determinants in American politics. Bogue employed quantitative methods to examine the intricacies of farm mortgages across the Midwest. Hays used quantitative methods to analyze the ethnic and electoral characteristics of Iowa townships. For Aydelotte, quantitative methods were useful in his study of voting patterns of the British House of Commons during the 1940s to explain the debate over repealing the Corn Laws. Following the departure of Bogue (to Wisconsin) and Hays (to Pittsburgh), quantitative work was carried out by Robert Dykstra, Allan Spitzer, Henry Horwitz, and Donald/Deirdre McCloskey. “Dykstra in particular,” recalls Stow Persons, “promoted quantification with evangelical zeal, prophesying that those who failed to employ its techniques would shortly be condemned to functional illiteracy.” The attention paid to quantitative methods was prevalent with graduate students at the university as well. As Bogue recalls, “students were engaged in real methodological pioneering within the discipline.”
Although Bogue contends that the phrase “‘Iowa School’ of American history” is “too grand…to convey the meaning of the Iowa situation,” he acknowledges that in the 1950s and 1960s “the program was one in which fresh approaches and methods were encouraged.” Of his own work, Bogue writes, “I became quite convinced of the importance of supplementing literary source material with quantitative evidence.” The department’s interest in exploring the potential for quantitative methodology is further demonstrated by The Dimensions of Quantitative Research in History, a collection of nine papers that each applied different quantitative strategies to their respective historical topics. The collection was published in 1972 following a conference on the subject, and was co-edited by Bogue and Aydelotte, as well as Robert William Fogel (a professor of history and economics at University of Chicago at the time). Overall, historians at the University of Iowa in the 1950s and 1960s were unafraid to explore quantitative practices, and were among those who saw its potential, especially when applied to historical questions of economic, political, and social significance.
Aydelotte, “Quantification in History,” AHR, July 1966
Allan G. Bogue, “Inside the Iowa School,” from Clio & the Bitch Goddess: Quantification in American Political History (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1983)