Demography in the United States: A Partial Account of the Development of the Field

Notestein, Frank W.

doi:10.2307/1972468

Cited by 41 publications

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“…Pearl and Corrado Gini, of Italy, were the two great supporters of the view that population growth was controlled by deep-seated and mainly biological factors. [Notestein (1982): 655] Notestein argued that while the biological determinism may have been flawed, it was, in fact, of use to demography: 'Hence, bad theory led to refuting studies . .…”

Section: Biology As Ideology: the Rise Of Totalitarianismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, while Pearl's laboratory was well funded, he did not command the necessary resources for such a study. He eventually received sponsorship from the MMF, Edgar Sydenstricker being not only convinced that Pearl's theory was wrong, but that he was 'open to persuasion by evidence' [Notestein (1982): 655]. His empirical study of contraception in the Northeast culminated in The Natural History of Population, published in 1939.…”

Section: Social Reform Versus Biological Fatalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most significant disciplinary histories by demographers include Glass (1957a), Hauser & Duncan (1959), Kiser (1971Kiser ( , 1981, Lorimer (1971), Lunde (1981), Notestein (1971Notestein ( , 1981Notestein ( , 1982, and Spengler & Duncan (1956a). 7.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…11. Frank W. Notestein, 'A Partial View of The Development of the American Demographic Field to the Late 1960s', draft, 8, later published as Notestein (1982): F.W. Notestein Papers, Seeley Mudd Library, Princeton University (SM).…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Carving up Population Science

Ramsden¹

2002

Soc Stud Sci

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Using the analytical framework of boundary-work, I examine how the cultural space of demography, its borders and its territories, were constructed and reconstructed as scientists continuously struggled to maintain, increase, and defend the cognitive authority of science and particular interpretations of reality. While the emerging field of population united both biologists and social scientists in the early 20th century, the controversy over the biologist Raymond Pearl’s logistic curve in the inter-war period became one of the defining features in the development of the population sciences in the United States. Pearl’s use of the logistic curve reflected his biologically determinist vision of human progress and the definition and function of science within that process. Pearl’s critics, the majority numbered among the social sciences, opposed such an imperialistic vision. With the weakening of Pearl’s influence, American demography was clearly defined as a social science. In disciplinary histories, Pearl’s defeat is attributed to scientific progress and the collapse of credibility for the eugenics movement. Thus a history of a scientific progression from biological determinism to social empiricism is combined with a shift from population ideology to population science. Yet the attack on the biological lawsin the 1930s had as much to do with differing opinions as how to best regulate a population according to eugenic standards, as it was a struggle between a biologically determinist eugenics and a social science of reform.

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Section: Biology As Ideology: the Rise Of Totalitarianismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Social Reform Versus Biological Fatalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Carving up Population Science

Ramsden¹

2002

Soc Stud Sci

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“…Particularly germane to the present discussion, at the Milbank Fund in the 1930s, Sydenstricker was a proponent of population studies and played an important role in funding the work on contraception and fertility that led to Pearl's 1939 The Natural History of Populations. [29][30] In the chronic disease era, Thomas McKeown was the leading advocate and practitioner of bridging epidemiology with demography. 28 Like Sydenstricker, his approach was out of step with his time, but still exerted enormous influence.…”

Section: Notable Exceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origins of Epidemiology

Süsser

Bresnahan

2001

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

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A BSTRACT : In this paper we trace the history of epidemiology from 1800 to the present time. The history is highly selective because our purpose is to illuminate the evolving relationship of epidemiology with demography. We first describe the common "prehistory" of these two disciplines in the early nineteenth century, and then describe their divergence during three successive eras of epidemiology up to the end of the twentieth century. In the final section, we draw attention to exceptional individuals who bridged the two disciplines despite the historical trend in the other direction, and express our hope that recent signs of convergence in the face of globalization and the AIDS pandemic will be borne out during the coming decades. K EYWORDS : epidemiology; history PREHISTORY OF EPIDEMIOLOGYThe earliest attempts to quantify changes in the size and health of populations extend at least as far back as John Graunt, who used the Bills of Mortality kept in England in the seventeenth century. 1 By the eighteenth century, some Scandinavian countries were recording numbers of births and deaths, and by the turn of that century, the population registers established by Napoleon provided a base for collecting vital statistics in other European countries. It was in England during the midnineteenth century, however, that the process was first articulated, systematized, applied to a large population, and used to draw implications for health policy. [2][3][4][5][6] Thus, we must look to England during the period of the Industrial Revolution in order to understand how the foundations were laid for the modern disciplines of epidemiology and demography.We refer to the period before 1850 in England as the "prehistory" of epidemiology and demography. By 1850 in England, the census was well established, Parliament had legislated sanitary reform, and vital statistics were being used to support inferences about population growth, patterns of health and disease, and public health policy. Therefore, by mid-nineteenth century, epidemiology and demography were recognizable, although not labeled as such.

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Strategic, Value‐Based Delivery in Global Health Care: Innovations at Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital

Weintraub

Talbot

Ole-Moiyoi

et al. 2011

Mount Sinai J Medicine

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Investments in global health have more than doubled over the past decade, generating a cadre of new institutions. To date, most of the funded research in global health has focused on discovery, and, more recently, on the development of new tools, which has tightened the implementation bottleneck. This article introduces the concept of global health delivery and the need to catalog and analyze current implementation efforts to bridge gaps in delivery. Global health delivery is complex and context-dependent and requires an interdisciplinary effort, including the application of strategic principles. Furthermore, delivery is necessary to ensure that the investments in research, discovery, and development generate value for patients and populations. This article discusses the application of value-based delivery to global health. It provides some examples of approaches to aggregating implicit knowledge to inform practice. With global health delivery, the aim is to transform global health scale-up from a series of well-intentioned but often disconnected efforts to a value-based movement based upon 21st-century technology, standards, and efficiency.

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Demography in the United States: A Partial Account of the Development of the Field

Cited by 41 publications

References 0 publications

Carving up Population Science

Carving up Population Science

Origins of Epidemiology

Strategic, Value‐Based Delivery in Global Health Care: Innovations at Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital

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