Quantitative Analysis of Culture Using Millions of Digitized Books

 
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Shen, Yuan Kui
Gray, Matthew K.
Google Books Team
Pickett, Joseph
Hoiberg, Dale
Clancy, Dan
Norvig, Peter
Orwant, Jon
Aiden, Erez Lieberman
Note: Order does not necessarily reflect citation order of authors.
Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1199644
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Michel, Jean-Baptiste, Yuan Kui Shen, Aviva P. Aiden, Adrian Veres, Matthew K. Gray, The Google Books Team, Joseph P. Pickett, et al. 2011. Quantitative analysis of cutlure using millions of digitized books. Science 331(6014 ): 176-182.
Abstract
We constructed a corpus of digitized texts containing about 4% of all books ever printed. Analysis of this corpus enables us to investigate cultural trends quantitatively. We survey the vast terrain of ‘culturomics,’ focusing on linguistic and cultural phenomena that were reflected in the English language between 1800 and 2000. We show how this approach can provide insights about fields as diverse as lexicography, the evolution of grammar, collective memory, the adoption of technology, the pursuit of fame, censorship, and historical epidemiology. Culturomics extends the boundaries of rigorous quantitative inquiry to a wide array of new phenomena spanning the social sciences and the humanities.
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http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:8899722

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