Little Data Streams to the Big Data River: Data-Based Solutions to Non-Data Questions and Their Implications for the CHIA Project

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jwhi.2015.16

Abstract

This article offers an example of how a “traditional” reading of an historical text can invite, and be enhanced by, a data-driven analysis. It suggests that historians who do not work primarily in data keep in mind the possibility that their research, viewed from the correct angle, may contribute to the collection of world-historical data. The data on the National Hungarian Weekend Association, overwhelmingly qualitative, nonetheless permitted construction of a useful dataset. The social composition of leadership in the organization revealed an unexpectedly narrow and clear pattern through an orderly investigation of organizational registration lists. 

Author Biography

Andrew Behrendt, University of Pittsburgh

Andrew Behrendt is a doctoral candidate and Teaching Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh. He is completing his dissertation, currently titled “Travelers of an Empire that Was: Tourism, Movie-Going, and the Formation of Post-Imperial Identities in Austria and Hungary, 1918-1944.” His research explores how former subjects of the Habsburg Monarchy worked out questions of “home,” group belonging, and individual social status through the experience of travel, both real and virtual.

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Published

2015-08-28

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Section

Articles: Practice in Historical Databases