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Adding Machines and Logarithms

Franklin H. Giddings and Computation for the Exact Science of Sociology

University of California, Los Angeles mcfarland{at}soc.ucla.edu

Sociologists of earlier eras had much more limited computational tools available, but even in the founding era, there were slide rules and printed tables of mathematical functions, mechanical calculators were becoming more common, and punched card tabulating equipmentwas being developed. This article focuses on one particular founder, Franklin H. Giddings, and the kind of computations he did or did not do, using or not using various computational devices then available. Giddings’s reputation, as the leading quantitative sociologist among the founders of the discipline, is compared with his published work. Giddings himself, although a prolific author, did very little original quantitative research. His main contribution to quantitative sociology consisted of his programmatic statements, which helped provide legitimation for subsequent scholars who actually performed quantitative research.

Key Words: Giddings • history of computing

Social Science Computer Review, Vol. 22, No. 2, 249-255 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/0894439303262565


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