Some central questions in the natural and social
sciences can't be answered by controlled laboratory
experiments, often considered to be the hallmark of the
scientific method. This impossibility holds for any
science concerned with the past. In addition, many
manipulative experiments, while possible, would be
considered immoral or illegal. One has to devise other
methods of observing, describing, and explaining the
world. In the historical disciplines, a fruitful
approach has been to use natural experiments or the
comparative method. This book consists of eight
comparative studies drawn from history, archeology,
economics, economic history, geography, and political
science. The studies cover a spectrum of approaches,
ranging from a non-quantitative narrative style in the
early chapters to quantitative statistical analyses in
the later chapters. The studies range from a simple
two-way comparison of Haiti and the Dominican Republic,
which share the island of Hispaniola, to comparisons of
81 Pacific islands and 233 areas of India. The societies
discussed are contemporary ones, literate societies of
recent centuries, and non-literate past
societies.Geographically, they include the United
States, Mexico, Brazil, western Europe, tropical Africa,
India, Siberia, Australia, New Zealand, and other
Pacific islands. In an Afterword, the editors discuss
how to cope with methodological problems common to these
and other natural experiments of history. |
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