Many statements made by historians are quantitative statements, involving the use of measurable historical evidence. The historian who uses quantitative methods to analyse and interpret such information needs to be well acquainted with the particular methods and techniques of analysis and to be able to make the best use of the data that are available. There is an increasing need for training in such methods and in the interpretation of the large volume of literature now using quantitative techniques. Dr Flouds text, which is relevant to all branches of historical inquiry, provides a straightforward and intelligible introduction for all students and research workers.
The simpler and more useful techniques of descriptive and analytical statistics are described, up to the level of simple linear regression. Historical examples are used throughout, and great attention is paid to the need to ensure that the techniques are consistent with the quality of the data and with the historical problems they are intended to solve. Attention is paid to problems of the analysis of time series, which are of particular use to historians. No previous knowledge of statistics is assumed, and the simple mathematical techniques that are used are fully and clearly explained, without the use of more mathematical knowledge than is provided by an O-level course. A bibliography is provided to guide historians towards the most useful further reading. This student friendly text was first published in 1973.

A new edition of the leading textbook on the economic history of Britain since industrialisation. Combining the expertise of more than 30 leading historians and economists, the volumes examine the foundational importance of economic life in modern Britain and the close interconnections between economic, social, political and cultural change. Each chapter provides a clear guide to the major controversies in the field and students are shown how to connect historical evidence with economic theory and apply quantitative methods. Volume 1 (1700-1870), examines industrialisation's causes and consequences; issues of globalisation, convergence and divergence; and the role of institutions, the state and technology. Volume 2 tracks the development of the British economy from late nineteenth century global dominance to its early twenty-first century position as a mid-sized player in an integrated European economy. Throughout the volumes British experience is set within an international context and its performance benchmarked against its global competitors.

Many statements made by historians are quantitative statements, involving the use of measurable historical evidence. The historian who uses quantitative methods to analyse and interpret such information needs to be well acquainted with the particular methods and techniques of analysis and to be able to make the best use of the data that are available. There is an increasing need for training in such methods and in the interpretation of the large volume of literature now using quantitative techniques. Dr Floud's text, which is relevant to all branches of historical inquiry, provides a straightforward and intelligible introduction for all students and research workers. The simpler and more useful techniques of descriptive and analytical statistics are described, up to the level of simple linear regression. Historical examples are used throughout, and great attention is paid to the need to ensure that the techniques are consistent with the quality of the data and with the historical problems they are intended to solve. Attention is paid to problems of the analysis of time series, which are of particular use to historians. No previous knowledge of statistics is assumed, and the simple mathematical techniques that are used are fully and clearly explained, without the use of more mathematical knowledge than is provided by an O-level course. A bibliography is provided to guide historians towards the most useful further reading. This student friendly text was first published in 1973.

A new edition of the leading textbook on the economic history of Britain since industrialisation. Leading historians and economists examine the foundational importance of economic life in modern Britain as well as the close interconnections between economic, social, political and cultural change. Each chapter provides a clear guide to the major controversies in the field and students are shown how to connect historical evidence with economic theory and how to apply quantitative methods. Volume 1, on 1700 1870, offers new approaches to classic issues such as the causes and consequences of industrialisation, the role of institutions and the state, and the transition from an organic to an inorganic economy, as well as introducing new issues such as globalisation, convergence and divergence, the role of science, technology and invention, and the growth of consumerism. Throughout the volume, British experience is set within an international context and its performance benchmarked against its global competitors."

A new edition of the leading textbook on the economic history of Britain since industrialisation. Leading historians and economists examine the foundational importance of economic life in modern Britain as well as the close interconnections between economic, social, political and cultural change. Each chapter provides a clear guide to the major controversies in the field and students are shown how to connect historical evidence with economic theory and how to apply quantitative methods. Volume 1, on 1700 1870, offers new approaches to classic issues such as the causes and consequences of industrialisation, the role of institutions and the state, and the transition from an organic to an inorganic economy, as well as introducing new issues such as globalisation, convergence and divergence, the role of science, technology and invention, and the growth of consumerism. Throughout the volume, British experience is set within an international context and its performance benchmarked against its global competitors."

A new edition of the leading textbook on the economic history of Britain since industrialisation. Leading historians and economists examine the foundational importance of economic life in modern Britain as well as the close interconnections between economic, social, political and cultural change. Each chapter provides a clear guide to the major controversies in the field and students are shown how to connect historical evidence with economic theory and how to apply quantitative methods. Volume 2, on 1870 to the present, tracks the development of the British economy from late nineteenth-century global dominance to its early twenty-first-century position as a mid-sized player in an integrated European economy. The chapters re-examine issues of Britain's relative economic growth and decline over the 'long' twentieth century, setting the British experience within an international context, and benchmark its performance against that of its European and global competitors.

Humans have become much taller and heavier, and experience healthier and longer lives than ever before in human history. However it is only recently that historians, economists, human biologists and demographers have linked the changing size, shape and capability of the human body to economic and demographic change. This fascinating and groundbreaking book presents an accessible introduction to the field of anthropometric history, surveying the causes and consequences of changes in health and mortality, diet and the disease environment in Europe and the United States since 1700. It examines how we define and measure health and nutrition as well as key issues such as whether increased longevity contributes to greater productivity or, instead, imposes burdens on society through the higher costs of healthcare and pensions. The result is a major contribution to economic and social history with important implications for today's developing world and the health trends of the future.

In historical accounts of the circumstances of ordinary people's lives, nutrition has been the great unknown. Nearly impossible to measure or assess directly, it has nonetheless been held responsible for the declining mortality rates of the nineteenth century as well as being a major factor in the gap in living standards, morbidity and mortality between rich and poor. The measurement of height is a means of the direct assessment of nutritional status. This important and innovative study uses a wealth of military and philanthropic data to establish the changing heights of Britons during the period of industrialization, and thus establishes an important dimension to the long-standing controversy about living standards during the Industrial Revolution. Sophisticated quantitative analysis enables the authors to present some striking conclusions about the actual physical status of the British people during a period of profound social and economic upheaval, and Height, Health and History will provide an invigorating statistical edge to many debates about the history of the human body itself.

Machine tools are vital to our industrial, metal-using society. This book is the first history of the British machine-tool industry during an important period of its development, a time when it played a crucial part in the transformation of the British economy. The author discusses the structure of the industry, its performance in international trade, and, through an analysis of the voluminous records of one firm, its efficiency and productivity. This discussion is placed within the wider context of current controversies about the behaviour of the British economy during the 'Great Depression' of the later nineteenth century, and its conclusions do not support pessimistic views of the performance of British industry. The book is also intended as a contribution to the explanation of the process of technological change, a problem of increasing interest to economists and economic historians.

This collection brings together important and influential articles and papers on different aspects of the history and health of welfare. It includes classic and more recent essays on the origins and nature of mortality decline; the early-life origins of adult health and disease; changes in height, weight and body mass; the definition of measurement of the 'standard of living'; and the economic and social impact of health improvements.

In historical accounts of the circumstances of ordinary people's lives, nutrition has been the great unknown. Nearly impossible to measure or assess directly, it has nonetheless been held responsible for the declining mortality rates of the nineteenth century as well as being a major factor in the gap in living standards, morbidity and mortality between rich and poor. The measurement of height is a means of the direct assessment of nutritional status. This important and innovative study uses a wealth of military and philanthropic data to establish the changing heights of Britons during the period of industrialization, and thus establishes an important dimension to the long-standing controversy about living standards during the Industrial Revolution. Sophisticated quantitative analysis enables the authors to present some striking conclusions about the actual physical status of the British people during a period of profound social and economic upheaval, and Height, Health and History will provide an invigorating statistical edge to many debates about the history of the human body itself.

Modern industrial societies are the creation of forced of change embedded in their pre-industrial and pre-capitalist past, forces which have shaped their economic structures, their politics of domination and resistance, their social ideas and relationships. In this book a distinguished group of historians focuses on this dialectal relationship between capitalism and its pre-capitalist heritage, revealing the ways in which older forms - whether they be social and economic structures and institutions, movements or ideologies, rituals or vocabulary - help to shape new, and are themselves reshaped in the process. The book thus develops a central theme in the writing of Eric Hobsbawm, to whom these essays are presented as a tribute on his retirement from Birkbeck College. An additional essay provides a major reappraisal of Hobsbawm's work. A number of different themes in modern European history are discussed in the context of the interrelationship of capitalism and the pre capitalist past. Several essays explore the history of the working class, its ideas and strategies of resistance, in France, Britain, Germany and Spain. Others discuss the place of landowners and bankers in the European ruling classes, and the development of central and eastern European societies. Their common concern is with the power of the past over patterns of change, and as such they are both a tribute to an outstanding British historian and a major contribution to the analysis of modern European history.

A new edition of the leading textbook on the economic history of Britain since industrialisation. Leading historians and economists examine the foundational importance of economic life in modern Britain as well as the close interconnections between economic, social, political and cultural change. Each chapter provides a clear guide to the major controversies in the field and students are shown how to connect historical evidence with economic theory and how to apply quantitative methods. Volume 2, on 1870 to the present, tracks the development of the British economy from late nineteenth-century global dominance to its early twenty-first-century position as a mid-sized player in an integrated European economy. The chapters re-examine issues of Britain's relative economic growth and decline over the 'long' twentieth century, setting the British experience within an international context, and benchmark its performance against that of its European and global competitors.

Humans have become much taller and heavier, and experience healthier and longer lives than ever before in human history. However it is only recently that historians, economists, human biologists and demographers have linked the changing size, shape and capability of the human body to economic and demographic change. This fascinating and groundbreaking book presents an accessible introduction to the field of anthropometric history, surveying the causes and consequences of changes in health and mortality, diet and the disease environment in Europe and the United States since 1700. It examines how we define and measure health and nutrition as well as key issues such as whether increased longevity contributes to greater productivity or, instead, imposes burdens on society through the higher costs of healthcare and pensions. The result is a major contribution to economic and social history with important implications for today's developing world and the health trends of the future.

'Roderick Floud's ground-breaking study of the history, money, places and personalities involved in British gardens over the past 350 years gives fascinating insight into why gardening is part of this country's soul.' Michael Heseltine, Deputy Prime Minister (1996-1997) 'Thousands of books have been written about the history of British gardens but Roderick Floud, one of Britain's most distinguished economic historians, asks new and important questions: how much did gardens cost to build and maintain, and where did the money come from? Superbly researched, it is full of information which will surprise both economists and gardeners. The book is fun as well as edifying: Floud shows us gardens grand and humble, and introduces us gardeners, plantsmen and technologies in wonderful varieties.' Jane Humphries, Centennial Professor, London School of Economics At least since the seventeenth century, most of the English population have been unable to stop making, improving and dreaming of gardens. Yet in all the thousands of books about them, this is the first to address seriously the question of how much gardens and gardening have cost, and to work out the place of gardens in the economic, as well as the horticultural, life of the nation. It is a new kind of gardening history. Beginning with the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Roderick Floud describes the role of the monarchy and central and local government in creating gardens, as well as that of the (generally aristocratic or plutocratic) builders of the great gardens of Stuart, Georgian and Victorian England. He considers the designers of these gardens as both artists and businessmen - often earning enormous sums by modern standards, matched by the nurserymen and plant collectors who supplied their plants. He uncovers the lives and rewards of working gardeners, the domestic gardens that came with the growth of suburbs and the impact of gardening on technical developments from man-made lakes to central heating. AN ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH GARDEN shows the extraordinary commitment of money as well as time that the English have made to gardens and gardening over three and a half centuries. It reveals the connections of our gardens to the re-establishment of the English monarchy, the national debt, transport during the Industrial Revolution, the new industries of steam, glass and iron, and the built environment that is now all around us. It is a fresh perspective on the history of England and will open the eyes of gardeners - and garden visitors - to an unexpected dimension of what they do.

A new edition of the leading textbook on the economic history of Britain since industrialisation. Combining the expertise of more than 30 leading historians and economists, the volumes examine the foundational importance of economic life in modern Britain and the close interconnections between economic, social, political and cultural change. Each chapter provides a clear guide to the major controversies in the field and students are shown how to connect historical evidence with economic theory and apply quantitative methods. Volume 1 (1700-1870), examines industrialisation's causes and consequences; issues of globalisation, convergence and divergence; and the role of institutions, the state and technology. Volume 2 tracks the development of the British economy from late nineteenth century global dominance to its early twenty-first century position as a mid-sized player in an integrated European economy. Throughout the volumes British experience is set within an international context and its performance benchmarked against its global competitors.

This volume of historical essays explores the full ramifications of the beginnings and development of the various branches of higher education in the area of London. It discusses: the contributions of the London County Council and the City of London; the economic and social context; questions of funding, class and gender; the polytechnics, teacher training, university extension, technical and scientific education; and the arts.

The inspiration for this work comes from the words of Adam Smith: "Consumption is the sole end of and purpose of all production..." This concentrates, in that spirit, on people rather on things; it describes the overall income and wealth of Britain, its growth, and how that income and wealth was produced by and distributed between different people in the population. Population growth has a central place, as do the changes in home and workplace, in the transformation of the lives of successive generations in Victorian and Edwardian Britain. Between 1830 and 1914 Britain became the world's major trading nation, carrier of the majority of the world's goods, by far the largest investor overseas, and the centre of the world's financial system. It was an exceptional time in the history of the country and one to which many look back, even a hundred years later, with nostalgia. This book seeks to describe and assess what was achieved in those 85 years. This should be of value to students of British economic and social history, sociology, from A-level upwards, and general readers interested in Victorian and Edwardian Britain.