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Counting on Relief: Industrializing the Statistical Interviewer during the New Deal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2011

Emmanuel Didier
Emmanuel Didier*
Affiliation:
Groupe de Sociologie Politique et Morale (GSPM), CNRS-EHESS Paris
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Argument

When the New Deal administration attained power in the United States, it was confronted with two different problems that could be linked to one another. On the one hand, there was a huge problem of unemployment, affecting everybody including the white-collar workers. And, on the other hand, the administration suffered from a very serious lack of data to illuminate its politics. One idea that came out of this situation was to use the abundant unemployed white-collar workers as enumerators of statistical studies. This paper describes this experiment, shows how it paradoxically affected the professionalization of statistics, and explains why it did not affect expert democracy despite its Deweysian participationist aspect.

Type
Research Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 24 , Issue 2: Lay Participation in the History of Scientific Observation , June 2011 , pp. 281 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

Reference List

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Central Statistical Board. 1933. “The Central Statistical Board.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 28 (184):438.Google Scholar
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Converse, Joan M. 1987. Survey Research in the United States. Roots and Emergence 1890–1960. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
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Didier, Emmanuel. 2007. “Do Statistics ‘Perform’ the Economy?” In Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics, edited by MacKenzie, Donald, Muniesa, Fabian, and Sue, Lucia, 276–310. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
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Rutherford, Malcolm. Forthcoming. “Science and Social Control: The Institutionalist Movement in American Economics.” Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, Arthur M. 1958. The Age of Roosevelt, vol. 2, The Coming of the New Deal, 1933–1935. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Bonnie F. 1984. The Civil Works Administration, 1933–1934. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, Ann H. 1968. Census USA. New York: Seabury Press.Google Scholar
Spears, Richard A. 1996. Dictionary of American Slang. Lincolnwood IL: NTC Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Stapleford, Thomas. 2010a. The Cost of Living in America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Stapleford, Thomas. 2010b. “Shaping Knowledge about American Labor: External Advising at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Twentieth Century.” Science in Context 23 (2):187–220.Google Scholar
Stephan, Frederick F. 1935. “State and Local Statistical Studies Conducted as Work Relief Projects.” Social Forces 13 (4):485–90.Google Scholar
Stephan, Frederick F. 1948. “History of the Uses of Modern Sampling Procedures.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 43 (241):12–39.Google Scholar
Taylor, Henry C. and Taylor, Dewees. 1952. The Story of Agricultural Economics in the United States, 1840–1932. Ames IA: Iowa State College Press.Google Scholar
Topalov, Christian. 1994. Naissance du chômeur 1880–1910. Paris: Albin Michel.Google Scholar
Topalov, Christian. 1999. “L'émergence de la catégorie statistique de ‘population active’ au XIXe siècle en France, en Grande-Bretagne et aux Etats-Unis.” Revue française de sociologie 40 (3):445–74.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1933. The Crop and Livestock Reporting Service in the United States. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Federal Works Agency. 1942. Final Statistical Report of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, prepared under the direction of Whiting, Theodore E.. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Works Progress Administration. 1936. “Division of Research, Statistics and Records.” Report on the Works Program (March): 26–27.Google Scholar
U.S. Works Progress Administration. 1938. Inventory. An Appraisal of the Results of the Works Progress Administration.Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Works Progress Administration. 1939. Analysis of Civil Works Program Statistics, edited by Gill, Corrington and Ross, Emerson. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Vogel, Frederic A. 1995. “The Evolution and Development of Agricultural Statistics at the United States Department of Agriculture.” Journal of Official Statistics 11:161–180.Google Scholar
White, Leonard D. 1937. “New Opportunities for Economists and Statisticians in Federal Employment.” American Economic Review 27 (1 supplement):210–215.Google Scholar
Record Group 29, Bureau of the Census.Google Scholar
Record Group 51, Central Statistical Board.Google Scholar
Record Group 69, Works Progress Administration.Google Scholar
Record Group 83, Bureau of Agricultural Economics.Google Scholar
Record Group 257, Bureau of Labor Statistics.Google Scholar
Alchon, Guy. 1985. The Invisible Hand of Planning: Capitalism, Social Science, and the State in the 1920s. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Algeo, John. 1984. “Etymologies Unknown: Boondoggle.” American Speech 51 (1):93–95.Google Scholar
Alsberg, Henry G. 1934. America Fights the Depression, A Photographic Record of the CWA. New York: Coward-McCann.Google Scholar
Anderson, Margo J. 1988. The American Census. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Bateman, Bradley W. 2001. “Make a Righteous Number: Social Surveys, the Men and Religion Forward Movement, and Quantification in American Economics.” History of Policital Economy 33 (annual supplement):57–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Joseph A. 1928. “Analysis of assumptions underlying the various indications of change in crop acreage.” Class of the Division (March 9). Washington DC.Google Scholar
Ben-David, Joseph. 1984. The Scientist's Role in Society: A Comparative Study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Boltanski, Luc and Thévenot, Laurent. 1991. De la justification. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 1930. “Unemployment Surveys of Philadelphia and Buffalo.” Monthly Labor Review 30 (2):17–39.Google Scholar
Camic, Charles. 2007. “On Edge: Sociology during the Great Depression and the New Deal.” In Sociology in America: A History, edited by Calhoun, Craig, 225–80. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Central Statistical Board. 1933. “The Central Statistical Board.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 28 (184):438.Google Scholar
Church, Verne H. 1944. Personal History and Recollections. Personal printing by Huwon Productions.Google Scholar
Converse, Joan M. 1987. Survey Research in the United States. Roots and Emergence 1890–1960. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Desrosières, Alain. 2008. Pour une sociologie historique de la quantification. Paris: Presses de l'Ecole des mines de Paris.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. [1927] 1991. The Public and Its Problems. Athens: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Didier, Emmanuel. 2002. “Sampling and Democracy: Representativeness in the First US Surveys.” Science in Context 15 (3):427–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Didier, Emmanuel. 2007. “Do Statistics ‘Perform’ the Economy?” In Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics, edited by MacKenzie, Donald, Muniesa, Fabian, and Sue, Lucia, 276–310. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Didier, Emmanuel. 2009. En quoi consiste l'Amérique? Les statistiques, le New Deal et la démocratie. Paris: La Découverte.Google Scholar
Duncan, Joseph and Shelton, William. 1976. Revolution in United States Government Statistics, 1926–1976. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Duncan, Joseph and Shelton, William. 1992. “U.S. Government Contributions to Probability Sampling and Statistical Analysis.” Statistical Science 7:320–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ebling, Walter H. 1939. “Why the Government Entered the Field of Crop Reporting and Forecasting.” Journal of Farm Economics 21 (4):718–734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falkner, Roland P. 1898. “The Development of the Census.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 12:34–62.Google Scholar
Gill, Corrington. 1934. “A Study of the Three Million Families on Relief in October 1933.” Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science 176:25–36.Google Scholar
Gill, Corrington. 1939. Wasted Manpower. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Hacking, Ian. 1990. The Taming of Chance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Harry L. 1936. Spending to Save. The Complete Story of Relief. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Hyman, Herbert H. 1954. Interviewing in Social Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Igo, Sarah. 2007. The Averaged American. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Judd, Orange. 1862. “An Important Enterprise.” American Agriculturist 21 (3).Google Scholar
Kleeck, Mary van. 1931. “The Federal Unemployment Census of 1930.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 26 (173):189–200.Google Scholar
Lang, Dorothea and Taylor, Paul. 1939. A Record of Human Erosion. Cornwall NY: Cornwall Press.Google Scholar
Locher, Fabien. 2008. Le savant et la tempête. Etudier l'atmosphère et prévoir le temps au XIXè siècle. Rennes: Presses universitaire de Rennes.Google Scholar
Manin, Bernard. 1995. Principes du gouvernement représentatif. Paris: Flammmarion.Google Scholar
Megill, Allan.1992. “Introduction: Four Senses of Objectivity.” Annals of Scholarship 8:301–320.Google Scholar
Mespoulet, Martine. 2001. Statistique et révolution en Russie. Un compromis impossible (1880–1930). Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers, Howard B. 1946. “Corrington Calhoun Gill, 1898–1946.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 41 (235):393–94.Google Scholar
Pollak, Michaël. 1986. “Un texte dans son contexte. L'enquête de Max Weber sur les ouvriers agricoles.” Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 65:69–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roosevelt, Franklin D. 1999. Great Speeches of Franklin D. Roosevelt, edited by Grafton, John. Mineola NY: Dover.Google Scholar
Ross, Emerson. 1934. “Research and Statistical Program of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 29 (187):288–94.Google Scholar
Rutherford, Malcolm. Forthcoming. “Science and Social Control: The Institutionalist Movement in American Economics.” Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, Arthur M. 1958. The Age of Roosevelt, vol. 2, The Coming of the New Deal, 1933–1935. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Bonnie F. 1984. The Civil Works Administration, 1933–1934. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, Ann H. 1968. Census USA. New York: Seabury Press.Google Scholar
Spears, Richard A. 1996. Dictionary of American Slang. Lincolnwood IL: NTC Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Stapleford, Thomas. 2010a. The Cost of Living in America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Stapleford, Thomas. 2010b. “Shaping Knowledge about American Labor: External Advising at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Twentieth Century.” Science in Context 23 (2):187–220.Google Scholar
Stephan, Frederick F. 1935. “State and Local Statistical Studies Conducted as Work Relief Projects.” Social Forces 13 (4):485–90.Google Scholar
Stephan, Frederick F. 1948. “History of the Uses of Modern Sampling Procedures.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 43 (241):12–39.Google Scholar
Taylor, Henry C. and Taylor, Dewees. 1952. The Story of Agricultural Economics in the United States, 1840–1932. Ames IA: Iowa State College Press.Google Scholar
Topalov, Christian. 1994. Naissance du chômeur 1880–1910. Paris: Albin Michel.Google Scholar
Topalov, Christian. 1999. “L'émergence de la catégorie statistique de ‘population active’ au XIXe siècle en France, en Grande-Bretagne et aux Etats-Unis.” Revue française de sociologie 40 (3):445–74.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1933. The Crop and Livestock Reporting Service in the United States. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Federal Works Agency. 1942. Final Statistical Report of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, prepared under the direction of Whiting, Theodore E.. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Works Progress Administration. 1936. “Division of Research, Statistics and Records.” Report on the Works Program (March): 26–27.Google Scholar
U.S. Works Progress Administration. 1938. Inventory. An Appraisal of the Results of the Works Progress Administration.Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Works Progress Administration. 1939. Analysis of Civil Works Program Statistics, edited by Gill, Corrington and Ross, Emerson. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Vogel, Frederic A. 1995. “The Evolution and Development of Agricultural Statistics at the United States Department of Agriculture.” Journal of Official Statistics 11:161–180.Google Scholar
White, Leonard D. 1937. “New Opportunities for Economists and Statisticians in Federal Employment.” American Economic Review 27 (1 supplement):210–215.Google Scholar