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Economics 29:
Economic History of the United States, 1865-1965

Professor Barbezat
Spring 2008

Research Tool Kit

  1. Books: Odds are that if you're interested in a topic, someone else has been as well. You can use the data in a different way from the author, building on the work that s/he has done (and giving credit, of course). Looking at books can be useful even if you don't have a well defined topic. You can start by searching the Five College Library Catalog with a keyword or two, and then branch out to related books by using the subject headings at the bottom of the record. Once you have the book in hand, check the footnotes and bibliography for sources. Or try searching the ACLS History E-Book Project which searches the full content of the books.

    Reference books can also be helpful if you want to get an overview, a bit of information, or ideas for a starting place:

    • Encyclopedia of American Economic History (3 volumes), Ref HC 103 E52
    • Handbook of U.S. Labor Statistics (2 volumes), Ref HD 8051.H36
    • Business Statistics of the United States (2 volumes - includes historic data), Ref HC 101.A13122

  2. Articles: -- EconLit is a great place to start. Enter some search words that interest you, and take a look at the results. Many times the database will provide related concepts to narrow or expand your search. For example, say you want to explore the economic impact of slavery on Post-Civil War African Americans, particularly the lack of literacy. The following record shows an abstract of an article on that topic. It also gives you links at the bottom of the record to articles on related topics. AND it tells you the data the author relied on... in this case, IPUMS and the Decennial Census. America History and Life is another good source. Unlike EconLit, it is not primarily and economics database, so you might want to add "economics" to your search ("great depression" and economics, for example.)

    Screenshot from EconLit showing alternate terms and data sources.

    Finding Data:

  1. Census. The Decennial Census is the most detailed social and economic data source available for the United States, going back to 1790. Unlike other surveys, it has data for very small geographic areas and for small population groups. But it has varied over time -- both in terms of who is counted, and the questions that are asked. Here's a table showing what was asked from 1790-2000. How race was defined and who was counted also varied -- this table shows the different racial categories used each decade. The library has all the census volumes in paper, at the following call numbers.

    Sometimes it's useful to look through the bound volumes -- the narrative has additional information not in the tables, and flipping through can be a good way to get a sense of what's there. TIP: You can also scan the hard copy tables special scanning software in IT (Seeley Mudd) and if it will enable OCR (optical character recognition) and let you bring the tables into Excel.) If you don't need really specific data, or data to the subcounty level, you can search and download the data directly from the Historical Census Browser for 1790 - 1960 They have included selected (not all) variables, and no cities or towns -- the smallest geographic area is the county. The U.S. Census Bureau also provides selected historic data online.

    In order to protect the privacy of individuals, the completed individual questionnaires are not available for 70 years after the census is completed. This detailed data for 1790 - 1930 is available via AncestryLibrary. Though the exact questions vary over the decades, it provides an amazing amount of information about households and families -- country of origin, education level, language spoken at home, home ownership, etc.

  2. Labor statistics. There is some data on occupation in the Census (above) but more detailed data in The Bulletin of the U.S. Department of Labor published (with a few name changes) from 1896 - 1977, available in the stacks at HD 8051 A52; and The Monthly Review of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1915-current, in the stacks at HD 8051 A78.

  3. IPUMS-Integrated Public Use Microdata Series Sometimes called the micro-census, IPUMS provides data based on individual records from 1850-2004. It is sample data (the largest sample is 1%) and identifying information (tying it to a specific person) is blocked for 70 years. "The thirty-eight samples, which draw on every surviving census from 1850-2000, collectively comprise our richest source of quantitative information on long-term changes in the American population." It is raw data, needing SAS or SPSS and a freely available codebook to make meaningful.

  4. Historical statistics of the United States, Millennial Edition This is a terrific tool that indexes publications from a wide array of federal agencies. It is a great index to statistics on labor, education, public health, agriculture, etc. It's also in paper, the call number for the copy at the reference desk as well as in the stacks is x HA202 .B87 1975. It's an excellent way to identify the source of the data -- it has great footnotes at the bottom of every table that explains the source. Sometimes the table won't have exactly the years or variables that you want, but going back to the source can get you there. (And again, you can scan these paper tables using OCR software and import the tables directly into Excel.)

  5. Statistical Abstract of the United States provides even more detailed data, each year back to 1878. It is in the stacks at HA202 .U58. It is also available in pdf, and some of the key historic tables have been made available online for download into Excel.

  6. ICPSR Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction. This is raw data, not in Excel and requires knowlege of SPSS or SAS to use. Paul Chapin in IT (pdchapin) is the AC contact for help using this data.

Questions? Comments? Susan Edwards (seedwards), 413-542-2676, Library Liaison to Economics