L'histoire quantitative: reflexions epistemologiques

This article outlines the present state of the debate on quantitative history in France. J.-L. Robert observes a transformation of "classic" approaches to social and economic history as a result of new statistical tools, now available to historians. He advocates a careful methodological assessment of these techniques of research and discusses in detail problems like the stability of indicators over time, the application of sampling-techniques, and the limits of quantification in history