Publisher's Synopsis
"Fogel asserts persuasively that cliometrics is best characterized by the explicit use of social science theory, and only secondly by its use of quantification…. Elton elegantly defends the traditional virtues of catholicity of method, skepticism toward sources, and informed scholarship. The two scholars' evident respect for each other enriches the debates as well as humanizes it." -David Keymer, Library Journal
"Both scholars are leading representatives of their modi operandi, and both have laid down path-breaking, interpretations of their subjects of study, leaving controversy and new methodology in their wake. It is therefore an event unto itself that two such professors of history should pause for a moment to meet at the fork in the road and debate the roads to the past." -Mark R. Horowitz, History Today
"Anyone interested in historiography will find [this book] useful." -Vincent A. Lapomarda, America