Social inequality in the 19th and 20th centuries: some introductory remarks
In: Quantitative history of society and economy: some international studies, S. 49-57
Why should social inequality be the topic of a session of a history congress
rather than of a meeting of sociologists and, hence, a section of this book by
historians rather than by sociologists? Why should one raise the issue of social
inequality in a period of deep worldwide economic crisis in which the general
public is interested in other themes and in which social inequality is often
considered as a preoccupation of the past economic boom ? Why should social
inequality be treated in a series of papers on quantitative history after having
become so much a preoccupation of intellectual history and of ideological
debates? I shall briefly answer these important and unavoidable questions, then
cover the definition as well as some ideas on the long-term change of social
inequality and finally say something about the three cases which are dealt with
in the following papers, i. e. Sweden, Poland, and the U.S.
