Trouble with Numbers: Statistics, Politics, and History in the Construction of Weimar's Trade Balance, 1918-1924.

HISTORIOGRAPHY; SOCIOLOGY of knowledge; WEIMAR Republic, 1918-1933; SOCIAL epistemology; FOUCAULT, Michel, 1926-1984; SCOTT, Joan Wallach; SEWELL, William H.

This article presents an analysis of the historical significance of statistics, specifically those involving the Weimar Republic from 1918-1924. The author examines the historiography of statistical data and how the views of social scientists towards this type of data has evolved. He mentions the work of William H. Sewell, Joan Wallach Scott and Michael Foucault. The volatile economy of the Wiemar Republic provides fertile ground to critique the sociology of knowledge, or, as he calls it, hermeneutical quantification.