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American history by the numbers
Every number collected has a "story" behind it and most stories have numbers behind them. We cannot tell our personal stories without reference to numbers. The story of our nation is no different. Sometimes the stories are obvious; other times numbers reveal their stories only when correlated with or related to other numbers or information. Only within their total context can they be fully understood.
The "Statistical Abstract of the United States," first published in 1878, is the nation's statistical summary and a guide to other sources. Editions are available at http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/statab.html, with the 2006 125th edition available in spreadsheet format at http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/.
"Historical Statistics of the United States, Millennial Edition" (Cambridge University Press, 2006) draws on more than 1,000 sources. It is the fourth edition of this indispensable resource. The weighty, five-volume set is available at Lockwood Memorial Library and online at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/Hist_Stats.html. The latter offers advanced searching capabilities, spreadsheet format and downloading. The millennial edition includes a wealth of documentation and insightful introductory essays in each of its five topical volumes: population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, economic sectors, and governance and international relations.
How many households were headed by women in 1947? In 2002? How many people were enslaved in 1860? What was their value? In 1997, how much did Americans spend on meals away from home? How does this compare to the same expenditure in 1963? What were the trends in beverage consumption between 1970 and 1995? How does attendance at the 1933 World Series compare to attendance at the 1999 World Series? The factual parade is seemingly endless, although sometimes specificity is lost in the categories under which numbers are reported. The documentation is indispensable.
National Public Radio aired spots with general editors Richard Sutch and Susan B. Carter, a husband-and-wife team from the University of California-Riverside, entitled "The Numbers Behind U.S. History" (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5224397) and "Literacy and Lynchings" (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5189912). A thoughtful email interview with Sutch and Carter is available on the History News Network (http://hnn.us/articles/21259.html). Especially thoughtful and notable among reviews of the work are Robert J. Samuelson's "America by the Numbers" (Jan. 18, 2006) and Joel Garreau's "America, Minus a Human Factor: From Guns to Bunions, a Statistical Portrait That Doesn't Quite Add Up" (April 26, 2006), both from The Washington Post and accessible using LexisNexis Academic (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/lexisnexis.html).
If you are not a quantitative historian and you want to use the numbers in ways not obvious or suggested in the complementary essays-which also discuss their shortcomings-begin with History Matters' Making Sense of Numbers (http://www.historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/numbers/). It offers an overview and an interactive introduction to methodologies and links to data archives and to online statistical guides.
Other statistical resources include the Historical Census Browser (http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/) and the resources collected in the University Libraries' guides Economic Statistics: Times Series Data (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/guides/busdoc/econhist.html) and Census-Government Resources (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/guides/busdoc/census.html).
Also see resources listed under Statistics in Best Basic Resources (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/quickstart.html).
—Charles D'Aniello, University Libraries