Abstract

An excessive focus on methodological training and recent case studies has left political scientists woefully ignorant of work done by scholars in other fields, particularly that of economic historians and historical demographers. Most glaringly, political science has missed the emergence of ‘cliodynamics,’ or the novel attempt to fashion broad historical trends into consistently measurable data over great lengths of time. I therefore not only submit a comprehensive survey of the population, economy, and conflict research offered by historiographers, but also explain how this data can be harnessed by political science.