History and GIS

History and GIS
Author: Alexander Lünen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2012-12-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9400750099

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) – either as “standard” GIS or custom made Historical GIS (HGIS) – have become quite popular in some historical sub-disciplines, such as Economic and Social History or Historical Geography. “Mainstream” history, however, seems to be rather unaffected by this trend. More generally speaking: Why is it that computer applications in general have failed to make much headway in history departments, despite the first steps being undertaken a good forty years ago? With the “spatial turn” in full swing in the humanities, and many historians dealing with spatial and geographical questions, one would think GIS would be welcomed with open arms. Yet there seems to be no general anticipation by historians of employing GIS as a research tool. As mentioned, HGIS are popular chiefly among Historical Geographers and Social and Economic Historians. The latter disciplines seem to be predestined to use such software through the widespread quantitative methodology these disciplines have employed traditionally. Other historical sub-disciplines, such as Ancient History, are also very open to this emerging technology since the scarcity of written sources in this field can be mitigated by inferences made from an HGIS that has archaeological data stored in it, for example. In most of Modern History, however, the use of GIS is rarely seen. The intellectual benefit that a GIS may bring about seems not be apparent to scholars from this sub-discipline (and others). This book wants to investigate and discuss this controversy. Why does the wider historian community not embrace GIS more readily? While one cannot deny that the methodologies linked with a GIS follow geographical paradigms rather than historical ones, the potential of GIS as a 'killer application' for digital historical scholarship should be obvious. This book brings together authors from Geography and History to discuss the value of GIS for historical research. The focus, however, will not be on the "how", but on the "why" of GIS in history.

Past Time, Past Place

Past Time, Past Place
Author: Anne Kelly Knowles
Publisher: Esri Press
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2002
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9781589480322

Collects essays about historical questions that can now be answered through geographic information systems, as well as the problems and limitations of using GIS technology.

Placing History

Placing History
Author: Anne Kelly Knowles
Publisher: ESRI, Inc.
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN: 1589480139

CD-ROM contains: Four Microsoft PowerPoint presentations and interactive mapping exercises, some of which extend the scholarly material and addresses new issues related to historical GIS.

The History of Geographic Information Systems

The History of Geographic Information Systems
Author: Timothy W. Foresman
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Total Pages: 424
Release: 1998
Genre: Science
ISBN:

These authors' contributions helped bring to national, state, and federal agencies the powerful new suite of geospatial tools for issues ranging from land use management to population enumeration."--BOOK JACKET.

Historical GIS

Historical GIS
Author: Ian N. Gregory
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2007-12-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1139467719

Historical GIS is an emerging field that uses Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to research the geographies of the past. Ian Gregory and Paul Ell's study, first published in 2007, comprehensively defines this field, exploring all aspects of using GIS in historical research. A GIS is a form of database in which every item of data is linked to a spatial location. This technology offers unparalleled opportunities to add insight and rejuvenate historical research through the ability to identify and use the geographical characteristics of data. Historical GIS introduces the basic concepts and tools underpinning GIS technology, describing and critically assessing the visualisation, analytical and e-science methodologies that it enables and examining key scholarship where GIS has been used to enhance research debates. The result is a clear agenda charting how GIS will develop as one of the most important approaches to scholarship in historical geography.

Historical GIS Research in Canada

Historical GIS Research in Canada
Author: Marcel Fortin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781552387085

Fundamentally concerned with place, and our ability to understand human relationships with environment over time, Historical Geographic Information Systems (HGIS) as a tool and a subject has direct bearing for the study of contemporary environmental issues and realities. To date, HGIS projects in Canada are few and publications that discuss these projects directly even fewer. This book brings together case studies of HGIS projects in historical geography, social and cultural history, and environmental history from Canada's diverse regions. Projects include religion and ethnicity, migration, indigenous land practices, rebuilding a nineteenth-century neighborhood, and working with Google Earth.

Toward Spatial Humanities

Toward Spatial Humanities
Author: Ian N. Gregory
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2014-04-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 0253011906

The application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to issues in history is among the most exciting developments in both digital and spatial humanities. Describing a wide variety of applications, the essays in this volume highlight the methodological and substantive implications of a spatial approach to history. They illustrate how the use of GIS is changing our understanding of the geographies of the past and has become the basis for new ways to study history. Contributors focus on current developments in the use of historical sources and explore the insights gained by applying GIS to develop historiography. Toward Spatial Humanities is a compelling demonstration of how GIS can contribute to our historical understanding.

Spatio-Temporal Narratives

Spatio-Temporal Narratives
Author: Ana Crespo Solana
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2014-06-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1443860999

This book explores new methods and techniques for research about merchant networks and maritime routes of trade during the First Global Age through the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a tool to visualize the formation of trading systems, database management, cartography and spatio-temporal analysis in Historical GIS. In doing so, the book focuses on key issues in understanding the birth of the so-called First Global Age (16th to 18th centuries): the integration of spatial economies; the regionalization of markets; the organization of maritime trade routes; and the evolution of self-organizing networks of merchants, producers, communities, and other social agents during the age of expansion. The essays collected here deal with relevant information about historical problems including maritime connections, the organization of oceanic trade and the use of digital cartography and metric analysis of old maps, and social network analysis – commercial networks involved a high level of cooperation and served to move goods and people within a highly open system over an expanding geographic space.

GIs in Germany

GIs in Germany
Author: Thomas W. Maulucci
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2013-09-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521851335

These fifteen essays offer a comprehensive look at the role of American military forces in Germany since World War Two.