Using GIS and Individual-Level Data for Whole Communities A Path Toward the Reconciliation of Political and Social History

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can assist the reintegration of the estranged fields of American political and social history when focused on individual-level political and social information for whole communities of moderate size. This article illustrates these integrative possibilities through an exploration of political and social life in four 19th-century North American communities. Place of residence has been determined for approximately 80 % of past inhabitants in each case study and spatial data serve as the link for all information. GIS pro-vides a new variable—spatial relationships—of interest to both political and social historians. GIS employed in this type of ‘‘total history’ ’ adds value for its analytic capacities as well as its more familiar strengths in visualization. GIS in this way is returned to the narrative and placed at the center of the interests of both political and social history