Quantifying historical insight - On the view of quantitative methods in historical research and education.

Abstract

In this thesis I try to answer the question: how are quantitative methods applied and viewed within the historical discipline in the 21st century? The time period is intentional here, because as I said in the introduction quantitative research was already done in the 1960s, but it lost its popularity in the 1990s. Quantification in history has not yet fully recovered from this. The association with quantitative history is that it has a bad reputation or is considered extinct in some circles. In the first chapter I aimed to provide more option for quantitative historical research than just text analysis. In the second chapter I wanted to illustrate what people think about the implementation of quantitative methods and digital tools. To do this I analyzed the History Manifesto, because it is a plea to do more quantitative research and digital tools. In the third chapter I presented how quantitative methods are taught at Utecht University. Both within the Humanities Faculty and the History bachelor.