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Dissertation Information for Gabriel Karl Wolfenstein

NAME:
- Gabriel Karl Wolfenstein

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2004)

ADVISORS:
- Theodore M. Porter

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Joseph Bristow
- Albion M. Urdank

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Public numbers and the Victorian state: The General Register Office, the census, and statistics in nineteenth-century Britain

Abstract: In this dissertation I situate the development of statistical knowledge within the social and cultural history of Victorian Britain. In so doing I am also exploring the relationship between this specific instance in the history of science and such issues of larger historiographic concern as the emergence of modern bureaucracies, nationalism and national identities, secularization, and the relationship between Britain and the Empire. To this end, I examine the manner in which public numbers--particularly censuses--were produced in the nineteenth century; reactions to this data by both governments and the more general populace; and the impact of public numbers on the way people perceived and interacted with the world thus described. Without denying the value of statistics in helping us to understand socio-economic trends, I point to the social constructedness of numbers, as well as to the ways in which statistical thinking spread outside the realm of statisticians into other intellectual spheres.

This project aims at situating the history of statistics within the social and cultural history of Victorian Britain, while simultaneously using the history of statistics to illuminate other historiographic questions. I use the history of the census to examine both the state as such--exploring the emergence of modern bureaucracies and political formations--as well as the state of things in general--particularly nationalism, secularization, and Empire. The lens used to focus on these topics is the General Register Office (GRO), the government office responsible, from 1837 onward, for the production of vital statistics and the decennial censuses. Though not the only official statistics produced, vital statistics generated the most public discussion, and therefore provide an important perspective on the nation as a whole.

MPACT Scores for Gabriel Karl Wolfenstein

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-08-10 22:43:26

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Students under Gabriel Karl Wolfenstein

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None