The essays in this book use the analytical tools and theoretical framework of economics to interpret quantitative historical evidence, offering new ways to approach historical issues and suggesting entirely new types of evidence outside conventional archives. Rosenbloom has gathered together seven essays from leading quantitative economic historians, illustrating the breadth of scope and continued importance of quantitative economic history.
All of the chapters explore in one way or another the economic and social transformations associated with the emergence of an industrial and post-industrial economy, with most focusing on the transformations of the US economy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the technological innovations that factored into this transformation and the relationship between industrialization and rising wealth inequality.

This book challenges the static, ahistorical models on which Economics continues to rely. These models presume that markets operate on a "frictionless" plane where abstract forces play out independent of their institutional and spatial contexts, and of the influences of the past. In reality, at any point in time exogenous factors are themselves outcomes of complex historical processes. They are shaped by institutional and spatial contexts, which are "carriers of history," including past economic dynamics and market outcomes.
To examine the connections between gradual, evolutionary change and more dramatic, revolutionary shifts the text takes on a wide array of historically salient economic questions--ranging from how formative, European encounters reconfigured the political economies of indigenous populations in Africa, the Americas, and Australia to how the rise and fall of the New Deal order reconfigured labor market institutions and outcomes in the twentieth century United States. These explorations are joined by a common focus on formative institutions, spatial structures, and market processes. Through historically informed economic analyses, contributors recognize the myriad interdependencies among these three frames, as well as their distinct logics and temporal rhythms.

This book examines the history of institutional changes in U.S. labor markets during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It combines a detailed historical description of how these institutions worked and evolved with a thorough analysis of quantitative evidence that reveals their implications for geographic wage convergence and market integration. This account illustrates both the importance of institutions as determinants of national economic performance and the importance of market forces in establishing the context of late nineteenth century labor history.

This book examines the history of institutional changes in U.S. labor markets during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It combines a detailed historical description of how these institutions worked and evolved with a thorough analysis of quantitative evidence that reveals their implications for geographic wage convergence and market integration. This account illustrates both the importance of institutions as determinants of national economic performance and the importance of market forces in establishing the context of late nineteenth century labor history.

The essays in this book use the analytical tools and theoretical framework of economics to interpret quantitative historical evidence, offering new ways to approach historical issues and suggesting entirely new types of evidence outside conventional archives. Rosenbloom has gathered together seven essays from leading quantitative economic historians, illustrating the breadth of scope and continued importance of quantitative economic history.
All of the chapters explore in one way or another the economic and social transformations associated with the emergence of an industrial and post-industrial economy, with most focusing on the transformations of the US economy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the technological innovations that factored into this transformation and the relationship between industrialization and rising wealth inequality.