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Using Computers in History is designed to introduce students to historical computing through practical workshop exercises. With topics such as the pattern of nineteenth century emigration from the UK, the performance of the American and German economies in the 1930s and the Lancashire cotton industry, Lloyd-Jones and Lewis explain and illustrate the possible uses of the computer for the historian.
Using Computers in History:
* raises awareness of the use of computers as an important tool for the historian
* provides a practical introduction to basic computer terminology
* includes high quality diagrams of the screen displays which should appear at each stage
* examines the use of spreadsheets and how to design and work with them
* discusses the different software packages available, concentrating on Microsoft Excel 4
* includes spreadsheet exercises based around a range of historical data sets
* explores the use of databases
* shows how to construct them
* gives guidelines for further study
* prompts students to apply the skills they have learnt to a number of examples
List of contents
Section 1: Introduction 1. How to Use this Book and Getting Started 2. Introduction to History and Computing Section 2: Spreadsheets and Graphs 3. Spreadsheets, Graphs and the Historian 4. Presenting Historical Data with a Spreadsheet 5. Presentation of Historical Information: Graphs 6. The Historian and Data: The Material Conditions of the Working-Class in Britain 1850-1914 7. Spreadsheets and Graphs: The Historian and Data Section 3: Databases 8. Databases and the Historian 9. Getting Started with a Database 10. Databases and Independent Study
About the author
Roger Lloyd-Jones is Reader in Economic and Business History, also at Sheffield Hallam University. The authors have run a course on history and computing at the university for several years., Senior Lecturer in Business History and History and Computing at Sheffield Hallam University.
Summary
Lloyd-Jones and Lewis explain and illustrate the possible uses of the computer for the historian. Using practical workshop sessions, basic skill and knowledge development exercises and theory, this will be an important tool for the historian.
