Explanation and quantification

Peter Manicas

pp. 179-205

in: Barry Glassner, Jonathan D. Moreno (eds), The qualitative-quantitative distinction in the social sciences, Berlin, Springer, 1989

Abstract

In 1929 Herbert Hoover assembled a distinguished group of social scientists "to examine into the feasibility of a national survey of social trends ... to undertake the researches and make ... a complete impartial examination of the facts".¹ Funded by the Rockefeller foundation with support from the Social Science Research Council and the Encylopedia of the Social Sciences, four years of work by hundreds of inquirers resulted in 1600 pages of quantitative research, Recent Social Trends in the United States, more informally, "the Ogburn Report", after its director of research, the Columbia University sociologist William F. Ogburn.