- Publisher:
- PHOENIX
- Year of publication:
- 2011
- ISBN:
- 978-0-674-06019-7
- Pages:
- 286
NATURAL EXPERIMENTS OF HISTORY
JARED DIAMOND
In eight case studies by leading scholars in history, archaeology, business, economics, geography, and political science, the authors showcase the natural experiment or comparative methodwell-known in any science concerned with the paston the discipline of human history. That means, according to the editors, comparing, preferably quantitatively and aided by statistical analyses, different systems that are similar in many respects, but that differ with respect to the factors whose influence one wishes to study. The case studies in the book support two overall conclusions about the study of human history: First, historical comparisons have the potential for yielding insights that cannot be extracted from a single case study alone. Second, insofar as is possible, when one proposes a conclusion, one may be able to strengthen ones conclusion by gathering quantitative evidence (or at least ranking ones outcomes from big to small), and then by testing the conclusions validity statistically.
