Methods and Tools of Quantification in Historical Research
Napoleonic Employment Applications as a Case Study
Abstract
With the advent of Digital Humanities offering innovative tools for historical research, this chapter evaluates their benefits and drawbacks using the Napoleonic Employment Applications project (NapApps) as a case study. After examining data structuring and categorization, it analyses 800 application letters from candidates for the Napoleonic administration to investigate aspects of professionalization. Focusing in particular on willingness to relocate and associated rhetorical strategies, the study identifies specific trends and distinctive vocabulary patterns. Following an evaluation of various text mining techniques along with their strengths and limitations, it explores methods that integrate text analysis with metadata about the authors. It concludes by arguing that this integrated approach provides a robust means for investigating historical phenomena.
Presentato: 08 Luglio 2024 | Pubblicato 22 Maggio 2025 | Lingua: en
Keywords Employment applications • Napoleonic Europe • Text mining • Quantitative methods • Digital humanities
Copyright © 2025 Valentina Dal Cin. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-919-1/007