Quantitative Methods for Historical Data Analysis

Quantitative Methods for Historical Data Analysis The use of quantitative methods for historical data analysis has become popularized by demographers, sociologists, social science historians, and economic historians since the Economic History Association and the National Bureau of Economic Research conference on income and wealthy in 1957.[1] In the past six decades, with the rapid development of computer information system and prevailing global Internet, quantitative analysis is gradually drawing history research closer to science and helps intensify peoples understanding of history. The first historical study that utilizes the quantitative analysis of historical data is Emily Eriksons, Malfeasance and the Foundations for Global Trade: The Structure of English Trade in the East Indies, 1601-1833.[2] In their 2006 article, Erikson and Bearman analyze that the growth and the global trade network of East India Company (EIC), 1601 to 1833, is mainly ascribed not to the entrepreneurial power of the company but to that its individual agents acting in their own self-interest, often at the expense of the EIC. To investigate the practices of individual malfeasance, Erikson and Bearman use data based on the sufficient data of 4,572 voyages taken by EIC including the records of ships, ship logs, journals, ports, voyage schedules, ledgers, individual and corporate correspondences, financial records and books, receipts, registers of cargo, personnel, and armaments. Data from The Catalogue of the East India Companys Ships Journals and Logs, 1600-1834 and The Biographical index of East India Company maritime service officers: 1600-1834 are used to demonstrate the carrying capacity of the EIC and the ports involved in the trade network.[3] Evidence reveals that the EIC management created opportunities for the private traders that were involved in malfeasance and for the relationship between EIC and the private traders. Evidence also shows how EIC management identified the private traders, the captains on the ships, and who used company resources to conduct private trades for personal profits. In addition to the impacts on economics, the history of malfeasance can be associated with social, cultural, and political factors. By using this data, Erikson and Bearman trace EIC trade from its early access to the Silk Road to the crossing of the Indian Ocean and discovering of an all-water route to Asia.[4] Through the examination of individual ships port visits, Erikson and Bearman are able to develop a thesis that argues the personal ambitions of ships captains indirectly led to a more developed globalized trade network. The second historical study that utilize the quantitative analysis of historical data is Tyler Anbinders Moving beyond Rags to Riches: New Yorks Irish Famine Immigrants and Their Surprising Savings Accounts (Anbinder 2012). In his 2012 article, Anbinder examines the financial conditions of New York Irish immigrant community in the nineteenth century. Rather than rely solely on the correspondences, employment records, and estimated assets, Anbinder uses a resource newly available to historians as of his writing: the Irish immigrants saving accounts at the Emigrant Saving Bank. [5] Anbinder challenges the long-held beliefs of many historians that Irish immigrants, particularly the Famine immigrants, were desperately poorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Widely despised, and often subsisting on the bare edge of starvation.[6] He argues that the Irish immigrants communities had optimistic chance of success based on the amount of money in their saving accounts.[7] To examine the savings of New Yorks Irish famine immigrants, Anbinder and his students conducted a research study by creating a database of nine hundred depositors (both immigrants and non-immigrants).[8] These were randomly chosen from among the first 18,000 accounts opened at the bank. Important factors examined include date of arrival in America, occupational distribution, and immigrants economic backgrounds in Ireland.[9] Anbinder argues the findings that the saving figures were underestimated the immigrants true net worth because of an overlook of immigrants additional accounts, remittances to the family in Ireland, other kinds of assets (real estate, business investments, personal property), and the actual financial resources.[10] Based on evidence, Anbinder acknowledges how the famine-era immigrant saved money from an unskilled job to a more profit-making category, own business, and/or using political connections to get higher-paying occupations. Anbinder illustrates a portrait of New York Irish immigrants using quantitative analysis of their bank records to draw out simple and independent indicators is radically different from his colleagues. In addressing his peers in eth field, Anbinder states that it is the historians responsibly to discard entirely the rags-to-riches paradigmà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and instead reconceptualize how we think about immigrant economic achievement in America.[11] He urges historians to look more at savings rather than these other measures of economic achievement. Saving is much more accurate measure of economic accomplishment, and the data is available, waiting to be explored. But it needs to be exploited soon because the records are quickly disappearing.[12] The third historical study that utilizes the quantitative analysis of historical data is the third chapter of Susie Paks Gentlemen Bankers: The World of J. P. Morgan. In her book, Pak examines the inner working of the private banking sectors from the perspective of J. P. Morgan Co. Paks approach differs from other studies of the private bankers to compartmentalize their lives into economic, business, and social circles. Studying these circles, Pak argues, is problematic in that it obscures the context in which social choice and business decisions were made and instead, call for an integrated approach. Rather than writing a biography of the Morgans, Pak takes a broad view of the Morgans relationships, combining and drawing on the studies of the Morgans social and business relations that have come before it.[13] She focuses on a history of their network, meaning it studies their relationships and how they were organized.[14] In addition to broadening the parameters of the study, Pak u ses quantitative methods to analyze historical data that helps verify some facts with results that have been mixed. In the third chapter of the book, Gentlemen Bankers, Pak examines the relationships between J.P. Morgan Co. and the Jewish banking family of Kuhn, Leob Co.[15] She argues that religion led to the rise of Jewish firms and influenced the social clubs to which certain successful bankers and lawyers belonged. To investigate how the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) and German-Jewish bankers were able to build trust and work together under the hostile anti-Semitism in America, Pak analyzes Morgans appointment books, social club ledgers, and patterns of residence within the neighbors as well as the syndicate partners. She points out the structural and historical similarities were existed between Jewish and Yankee bankers, such as an unlimited liability private partnership, strong connections with European economic networks, shared multiple kinship ties and family marriages.[16] She also argues that social separation significantly existed because of the cultural, religious differences , language barriers, and other historical trends.[17] Starting in the nineteenth century, discrimination against the Jewish among Anglo-Americans occurred in institutions of higher learning and high society.[18] Pak illustrates that Morgan and Jewish did not reside or congregate within the same social clubs or fraternities. However, in the nine to five relationship that while Jewish and non-Jewish bankers were able to maintain their connection in downtown during the working hours, and yet the partners residences in uptown New York remained separated.[19] Pak also points out not only anti-Semitism existed between Jewish and non-Jewish bankers, racial and gender discrimination against non-white immigrants and women was not usual in the financial world during the time.[20] Paks integrated approach analyzing the appointment books, social club ledgers, and the patterns of residence within the neighbors and the syndicate partners helps interpret and analyze historical evidence more effectively. [1] North, Douglass C. Cliometrics-40 Years Later. The American Economic Review, 1977: 412-414Two presentations by Alfred Conrad and John Meyer analyzing the history of the economies of U.S. and Canada in quantitative terms, on methodology (1957) and on the economics of slavery (1958), see also Conrad, A. H. and Meyer, J. R. Economic Theory, Statistical Inference and Economic History, Journal of Economic History 17:4 (Dec. 1957): 524-44: Conrad, A. H. and Meyer, J. R. The Economics of Slavery in the Antebellum South. Journal of Political Economy 66:2 (April 1958): 95-130. [2] Erikson, Emily. Malfeasance and the Foundations for Global Trade: The Structure of English Trade in the East Indies, 1601-1833. The American Journal of Sociology, 2006: 195-230. [3] Ibid. 207 [4] Ibid. 200 [5] Tyler Anbnder, Moving beyond Rags to Riches: New Yorks Irish Famine Immigrants and Their Surprising Savings Accounts, Journal of American History 99, no. 3 (2012): 743 [6] 4 Oscar Handlin, Bostons Immigrants: A Study in Acculturation (1941; Cambridge, Mass., 1991), 69, 55; Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (New York, 1985), 314-16, 321-22; Donald Harman Akenson, The Irish Diaspora: A Primer (Toronto, 1993), 236-44; Kevin Kenny, Twenty Years of Irish American Historiography, Journal of American Ethnic History, 28 (Summer 2009), 67-69; Kenneth A. Scherzer, Immigrant Social Mobility and the Historian, in A Companion to American Immigration, ed. Reed Ueda (Malden, 2006), 374; Edward Ayers et al., American Passages: A History of the United States (Fort Worth, 2000), 397. [7] Tyler Anbnder, Moving beyond Rags to Riches: New Yorks Irish Famine Immigrants and Their Surprising Savings Accounts, Journal of American History 99, no. 3 (2012): 743 [8] Ibid. 747 [9] Ibid. [10] Ibid. 751 [11] Tyler Anbnder, Moving beyond Rags to Riches: New Yorks Irish Famine Immigrants and Their Surprising Savings Accounts, Journal of American History 99, no. 3 (2012): 743 [12] Ibid. 769 [13] Susie J. Pak, Gentlemen Bankers: The world of J.P. Morgan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Unversity Press, 2013): 4 [14] Ibid. [15] Chapter three: Anti-Semitism in Economic Network, 81-106 [16] Susie J. Pak, Gentlemen Bankers: The world of J.P. Morgan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Unversity Press, 2013): 80-82 [17] Ibid. 86 The refusal of Joseph Seligman, to the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga, New York, on the grounds that they were Jewish or to use the term of the hotel, Israelites,' [18] Susie J. Pak, Gentlemen Bankers: The world of J.P. Morgan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Unversity Press, 2013): 95 [19] Ibid. 85 [20] Ibid. 103-106

Ode to Evening

Tuesday, March 6, 2007 Ode to Evening – William Collins Introduction: â€Å"Ode to Evening,† is one among the most enduring poems of William Collins. It is a beautiful poem of fifty-two lines, addressed to a goddess figure representing evening. This nymph, or maid, who personifies dusk, is chaste, reserv’d, and meek, in contrast to the bright-hair’d sun, a male figure who withdraws into his tent, making way for night. Thus evening is presented as the transition between light and darkness. Collins’ Construction of Evening: Collins slowly constructs Evening as an allegorical figure with many attributes, and many aural and visual characteristics. Collins piles up epithets; Eve is â€Å"chaste,† â€Å"reserved,† â€Å"composed,† â€Å"calm,† â€Å"meekest†; her ear is â€Å"modest. † The figure of Eve so far is only yet a sketch, but her attributes add up to the idea of an attractive, calm woman who is not restless or forcefully active. Contrast of Evening with the Daytime: According to the poet, Evening possesses â€Å"solemn springs† and â€Å"dying gales† Daytime activity gives way to calm as the wind literally often dies down in the evening. Some activity now supplements our picture of Eve. The gentle movements of water and the air ensure that her figure is not static. Eve’s contrast with the daytime world is even more obvious when Collins compares her to the setting sun. The glaring â€Å"bright-haired sun† sits regally in his tent of clouds, the â€Å"skirts† or edges of which seem to be made of many-colored braided cloth. This ethereal (heavenly) cloth evokes a picture of a vivid sunset; the sun is descending to its â€Å"wavy bed,† behind an ocean or lake. The day is almost done, and the sun not at the height of vigor (he is in his tent), but the implication is that he rests only after an active day. The Journey of the Pilgrim into the world of Evening: After the sunset, at â€Å"twilight,† the world is not yet attuned to Eve’s mood. The air is hushed, except for some annoying sounds: the bat’s â€Å"short shrill shrieks† and sound of the beetle’s â€Å"small but sullen horn. † The bat’s weak eyes and â€Å"leathern wing† are not pleasant, nor are the many beetles as they are borne (by the a breeze, I assume) up against the pilgrim on his quasi-religious journey. The beetles’ horns together can be characterized a making a humming noise; in any case they are heedless of the annoyance they cause. The Poet in a Prayerful Mood: Up until now, Collins has simply been addressing Evening. The grammatical unit of the opening of the poem is not completed until Line 15: â€Å"Now teach me. † The mood of this verb is not imperative, but prayerful. In the drama of the poem, the speaker is at first unsure of himself but gradually gains confidence. Evening has finally arrived: darkening, still, genial, cheering, vital, and beloved. The poet prays for Eve to teach him to write a poem which praises her. This is Collins’ way. Description of Evening: Now the poem blossoms. Collins begins to build up, not a literal picture of Evening, but a picture of the allegorical figure of Evening composed of details which evoke more of her attributes. A â€Å"car† or processional vehicle is being prepared for Eve in which she can progress through the evening surrounded by her attendants. The picture Collins gives us of a ceremonial car would have been more familiar to his audience than to us. Her attendants add to her characterization. Her car is prepared by The Hours (goddesses who order the seasons and are given to adorn things), and accompanied by sprightly elves who sleep in flowers, river goddesses wreathed in sedge and shedding freshening dew, and pensive Pleasures. These are active and by-and-large beautiful figures, without being at all bustling or too dazzling. They all embellish the figure of Eve, delicately balancing her qualities: active yet calm, beautiful and cheerful yet chaste and reserved. The Spirit of Evening: Collins then asks Evening to lead on as she progresses to this lovely day’s end. She moves from the lowly heath, lighted now only by a reflection of a totally calm lake. Moving upward where Evening can be seen for the last time, the lake’s light cheers an ancient building and an upland field. Note that Eve is addressed a â€Å"vot’ress†; presumably like the poet she worships the spirit of Evening. The Other side of Evening: Collins now expands on his definition. So far, his description of Evening has been calm and beautiful. But Collins’ Evening is not just beautiful. She also includes â€Å"chill blustering winds† and â€Å"driving rain. † When he cannot walk about, the poet hopes to look out from a â€Å"hut† on a mountainside, rather like the place from which many Claude scenes are viewed. He will see wild scenery and flooding rivers, as well as the poem’s first traces of ordinary civilization: â€Å"hamlets brown, and dim-discovered spires. † Now night falls as Eve’s â€Å"dewy fingers draw / The gradual dusky veil. † Evening as seen through the Whole Year: Collins then takes Evening through the year. As before, some of the associations are not pleasant. Spring is nicely associated with both water and the movement of air (showers and â€Å"breathing tresses†), Summer with sport and half-light. Autumn is less lovely (sallow), but is generous with leaves. Winter is nasty, â€Å"yelling through the troublous air and attacking Eve’s train (of attendants? of her dress? ) and even rending her robes. Evening can be attacked and is vulnerable, but she is not defeated. Collin’s characterization leads us from the beautiful picture of the poems first 32 lines to a picture of Evening’s strength to endure through good and bad. All in all, Collins has accomplished what he evidently set out to do—catch lovely time of day in all its transitory aspects. Evening as a State of Mind: Lessons from Evening: From the beginning Collins has asked Evening to lead him on, to infuse his heart and mind with the ability to see her and write about her. The progress in the poem has not just been the gradual unfolding of Evening, but the gradual education of the poet about what Evening is—from the early visions of shadowy beauty to the qualities that endure through bad weather. These qualities have obvious human analogues. In short, Evening becomes, not only a time of day, but a state of mind that develops in the pilgrim/poet by contemplating and experiencing and writing about the literal evening. Literal evening is not just associated with but actually helps cause this wonderful calm, happy, contemplative, intelligent, happy, open, creative, sympathetic state of mind, the state that feeds Fancy (as in the writing of this poem), Friendship, Science (that is knowledge and learning), and for that matter physical, and by extension mental, health. It is no surprise that these qualities sing a hymn of praise to Evening—a hymn that is a sharp contrast to the yelling of winter a few lines before. [21] Conclusion: This poem points ahead. He is enabled by this state of mind and moves forward. Ode to Evening is one of the masterpieces of Collins. Collins’ odes, do not point morals. Rather they dramatically define their subject by building up a personified and vividly pictured allegorical character. it is the best of the mid-century odes and provides a good bridge to the great Romantic poets. – With due acknowledgements to Prof. George Soule

Anylizing Concepts of Justice in to Kill a Mockingbird

Analyzing the Concept of Justice in To Kill a Mockingbird Through the study this term of the central text, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and related texts, films Rabbit Proof Fence by Phillip Noyce and In the Name of the Father by Jim Sheridan, my understanding of the concept of justice, or what constitutes justice, has altered considerably. We all think we know what justice is, or what it should be. In Australian colloquial terms, it is the principle of a â€Å"fair go† for everyone. In a perfect world, everyone is treated fairly. No-one is subjected to discrimination on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, sex or disability. But the reality is that the world we inhabit is far from perfect, human beings are by their very natures†¦show more content†¦For him, like many other real-life Negroes in American history, the principles underpinning political, social and criminal justice failed. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus’ belief that, â€Å"in our courts all men are created equal,† ( p. 209) makes a complete mockery of the judicial system. The recent Australian film, Rabbit Proof Fence, similarly condemns the social, political and cultural mores of colonial and post-colonial Australia in relation to its past treatment of indigenous Australians. Like To Kill a Mockingbird, it too, is set in the 1930’s and reflects similar attitudes and values whites have to black people. The film is a true story based on the book by Doris Pilkington Garimara, the daughter of one of the half-caste children in the film who, together with two other Aboriginal girls, was forcibly removed from her family in Jigalong, Western Australia. These children form part of what is now known as the â€Å"Stolen Generation†. They, like many others who lived in the first part of the 20th century, were the victims of the official government assimilationist policy which decreed that half-caste children should be taken from their families and their land in order to be made â€Å"white†. The pol icy was definitely aimed at â€Å"breeding out† Aboriginality, because only half and quarter caste children were taken. Like Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird, the three girls, Molly, Daisy and Gracie are wrongfully imprisoned, discriminated against because of

Motivation And Attitude Towards Kids - 986 Words

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