Edward Higgs
Biographic Data
| ID | 3768875 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Edward Higgs |
| GIVEN NAMES | Edward |
| FAMILY NAME | Higgs |
| SIGNATURE | HIGGS E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Essex |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 99 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 25 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Information and Power in History
UK birth registration and its present discontents
Women, Occupations and Work in the Victorian Censuses Revisited
There has long been a tendency amongst historians to view the Victorian censuses of England and Wales as a problematic source for studying the work of women. This article examines some of the key works underpinning this claim and shows their shortcomings, especially in relation to their extrapolation from isolated local studies to the national picture. Drawing upon comparisons between local census returns in East Anglia and London, and other nomi…
Identification and Registration Practices in Transnational Perspective
Identifying the English
Personal identification is very much a live political issue in Britain and this book looks at why this is the case, and why, paradoxically, the theft of identity has become ever more common as the means of identification have multiplied. Identifying the English looks not only at how criminals have been identified - branding, fingerprinting, DNA - but also at the identification of the individual with seals and signatures, of the citizen by means o…
States and statistics in the nineteenth century
William Petty and the ambitions of political arithmetic - By Ted McCormick
Possessing the World
The early information society
Reply to Victor Gatrell and Steve Hindle
The Information State in England
The Information State in England
Is the official collection of information on individuals inevitably leading to the creation of a 'Big Brother State'? In this innovative interdisciplinary study, Edward Higgs takes issue with writers such as Michel Foucault and Anthony Giddens who argue that state information gathering can be seen in terms of an expansion towards modernity, and as social control. Using ground-breaking historical research, Higgs reveals that, since 1500, the Engli…
Victorian Spies
In the summer of 2001 Channel 4 ran a series of four programmes under the general heading of 'The History of Surveillance', the first of which was entitled 'Victorian Spies'. In this it was argued that in a pre-modern society there was little surveillance of information gathering, by the state, and that the development of such surveillance was a reaction to the rise of modern urban society. The state was acting to impose social control on a 'soci…
The Rise of the Information State
This essay examines existing sociological explanations of the development of the central surveillance of citizens in the light of the English experience, and finds them wanting. Sociologists see the state using surveillance for the benefit of capitalist elites, to reimpose social control over the "society of strangers" created by industrialisation. But surveillance pre-dated industrialisation, and the development of information gathering by state…
Chasing the Ambulance. The Emerging Crisis in the Preservation of Modern Health Records
In this brief essay we argue that the best efforts of archivists, scholars, and practitioners within the National Health Service have not prevented the wholesale destruction of the bulk of patient records created during the twentieth century. This is a matter of vital concern not merely for historians of modern medicine. Important clinical work has frequently been undertaken on materials which have survived, usually by chance or by the foresight …
The Statistical Big Bang of 1911
This paper examines the relationship between intellectual debate, technologies for analysing information, and the production of statistics in the General Register Office (GRO) in London in the early twentieth century. It argues that controversy between eugenicists and public health officials respecting the cause and effect of class-specific variations in fertility led to the introduction of questions in the 1911 census on marital fertility. The i…
A cuckoo in the nest? The origins of civil registration and state medical statistics in England and Wales
On constate une certaine tendance à écrire en termes de religion et de médecine l'histoire de l'instauration de l'état civil ainsi que celle du General Register Office en Angleterre et Galles en application du Registration Act de 1836. Nous soutenons dans cet article qu'il est plus fécond d'analyser ces mesures essentiellement en termes d'enregistrement de droits de propriéte; d'autre part les grands débats du XIXe siècle commençant, relatifs à l…
Occupational Censuses and the Agricultural Workforce in Victorian England and Wales
This article discusses the difficulties in using nineteenth-century census data relating to occupations for the analysis of sectoral labour inputs. The under-recording of seasonal and women's work in the census shifts in occupational classifications, and the systematic removal from the occupied population of women workers is revealed. Reworking of the census figures suggests the possible need to increase the size ofthe agricultural workforce by b…
Disease, Febrile Poisons, and Statistics
Historians have tended to treat the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century censuses of England and Wales as social and economic surveys. In this paper it is argued that they should be seen as part of the General Register Office's overall project of data gathering for the purposes of medical and sanitary research. The populations of defined administrative areas were required for calculating rates search. the populations of defined administraticve…
Making Sense of the Census
Providing researchers with a guide to the 19th century census records, this book also provides an administrative background to the census, describing the documents in detail and commenting on the nature and reliability of the information they contain. These manuscripts are widely used by genealogists, historical demographers, and those interested in social, economic and local history and the book can also be used both as a general introduction to…
Women, Occupations and Work in the Nineteenth Century Censuses
Journal Article Women, Occupations and Work in the Nineteenth Century Censuses Get access Edward Higgs Edward Higgs Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar History Workshop Journal, Volume 23, Issue 1, SPRING 1987, Pages 59–80, https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/23.1.59 Published: 01 March 1987
Particular instance papers’
Counting Heads and Jobs
Domestic servants and households in Victorian England
(1983). Domestic servants and households in Victorian England. Social History: Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 201-210
Leisure and the State
Leisure and the State: The History of Popular Culture as Reflected in the Public Records Get access Edward Higgs Edward Higgs Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar History Workshop Journal, Volume 15, Issue 1, Spring 1983, Pages 141–150, https://doi.org/10.1093/hwi/15.1.141 Published: 01 March 1983
Women, Occupations and Work in the Nineteenth Century Censuses
Journal Article Women, Occupations and Work in the Nineteenth Century Censuses Get access Edward Higgs Edward Higgs Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar History Workshop Journal, Volume 23, Issue 1, SPRING 1987, Pages 59–80, https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/23.1.59 Published: 01 March 1987
The Rise of the Information State
This essay examines existing sociological explanations of the development of the central surveillance of citizens in the light of the English experience, and finds them wanting. Sociologists see the state using surveillance for the benefit of capitalist elites, to reimpose social control over the "society of strangers" created by industrialisation. But surveillance pre-dated industrialisation, and the development of information gathering by state…
Domestic servants and households in Victorian England
(1983). Domestic servants and households in Victorian England. Social History: Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 201-210
Disease, Febrile Poisons, and Statistics
Historians have tended to treat the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century censuses of England and Wales as social and economic surveys. In this paper it is argued that they should be seen as part of the General Register Office's overall project of data gathering for the purposes of medical and sanitary research. The populations of defined administrative areas were required for calculating rates search. the populations of defined administraticve…
Occupational Censuses and the Agricultural Workforce in Victorian England and Wales
This article discusses the difficulties in using nineteenth-century census data relating to occupations for the analysis of sectoral labour inputs. The under-recording of seasonal and women's work in the census shifts in occupational classifications, and the systematic removal from the occupied population of women workers is revealed. Reworking of the census figures suggests the possible need to increase the size ofthe agricultural workforce by b…
Women, Occupations and Work in the Victorian Censuses Revisited
There has long been a tendency amongst historians to view the Victorian censuses of England and Wales as a problematic source for studying the work of women. This article examines some of the key works underpinning this claim and shows their shortcomings, especially in relation to their extrapolation from isolated local studies to the national picture. Drawing upon comparisons between local census returns in East Anglia and London, and other nomi…
The Statistical Big Bang of 1911
This paper examines the relationship between intellectual debate, technologies for analysing information, and the production of statistics in the General Register Office (GRO) in London in the early twentieth century. It argues that controversy between eugenicists and public health officials respecting the cause and effect of class-specific variations in fertility led to the introduction of questions in the 1911 census on marital fertility. The i…
A cuckoo in the nest? The origins of civil registration and state medical statistics in England and Wales
On constate une certaine tendance à écrire en termes de religion et de médecine l'histoire de l'instauration de l'état civil ainsi que celle du General Register Office en Angleterre et Galles en application du Registration Act de 1836. Nous soutenons dans cet article qu'il est plus fécond d'analyser ces mesures essentiellement en termes d'enregistrement de droits de propriéte; d'autre part les grands débats du XIXe siècle commençant, relatifs à l…
UK birth registration and its present discontents
Chasing the Ambulance. The Emerging Crisis in the Preservation of Modern Health Records
In this brief essay we argue that the best efforts of archivists, scholars, and practitioners within the National Health Service have not prevented the wholesale destruction of the bulk of patient records created during the twentieth century. This is a matter of vital concern not merely for historians of modern medicine. Important clinical work has frequently been undertaken on materials which have survived, usually by chance or by the foresight …
Particular instance papers’
Counting Heads and Jobs
Domestic servants and households in Victorian England
(1983). Domestic servants and households in Victorian England. Social History: Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 201-210
Leisure and the State
Leisure and the State: The History of Popular Culture as Reflected in the Public Records Get access Edward Higgs Edward Higgs Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar History Workshop Journal, Volume 15, Issue 1, Spring 1983, Pages 141–150, https://doi.org/10.1093/hwi/15.1.141 Published: 01 March 1983
Particular instance papers’
Counting Heads and Jobs
Women, Occupations and Work in the Nineteenth Century Censuses
Journal Article Women, Occupations and Work in the Nineteenth Century Censuses Get access Edward Higgs Edward Higgs Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar History Workshop Journal, Volume 23, Issue 1, SPRING 1987, Pages 59–80, https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/23.1.59 Published: 01 March 1987
Making Sense of the Census
Providing researchers with a guide to the 19th century census records, this book also provides an administrative background to the census, describing the documents in detail and commenting on the nature and reliability of the information they contain. These manuscripts are widely used by genealogists, historical demographers, and those interested in social, economic and local history and the book can also be used both as a general introduction to…
Disease, Febrile Poisons, and Statistics
Historians have tended to treat the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century censuses of England and Wales as social and economic surveys. In this paper it is argued that they should be seen as part of the General Register Office's overall project of data gathering for the purposes of medical and sanitary research. The populations of defined administrative areas were required for calculating rates search. the populations of defined administraticve…
Occupational Censuses and the Agricultural Workforce in Victorian England and Wales
This article discusses the difficulties in using nineteenth-century census data relating to occupations for the analysis of sectoral labour inputs. The under-recording of seasonal and women's work in the census shifts in occupational classifications, and the systematic removal from the occupied population of women workers is revealed. Reworking of the census figures suggests the possible need to increase the size ofthe agricultural workforce by b…
The Statistical Big Bang of 1911
This paper examines the relationship between intellectual debate, technologies for analysing information, and the production of statistics in the General Register Office (GRO) in London in the early twentieth century. It argues that controversy between eugenicists and public health officials respecting the cause and effect of class-specific variations in fertility led to the introduction of questions in the 1911 census on marital fertility. The i…
A cuckoo in the nest? The origins of civil registration and state medical statistics in England and Wales
On constate une certaine tendance à écrire en termes de religion et de médecine l'histoire de l'instauration de l'état civil ainsi que celle du General Register Office en Angleterre et Galles en application du Registration Act de 1836. Nous soutenons dans cet article qu'il est plus fécond d'analyser ces mesures essentiellement en termes d'enregistrement de droits de propriéte; d'autre part les grands débats du XIXe siècle commençant, relatifs à l…
Chasing the Ambulance. The Emerging Crisis in the Preservation of Modern Health Records
In this brief essay we argue that the best efforts of archivists, scholars, and practitioners within the National Health Service have not prevented the wholesale destruction of the bulk of patient records created during the twentieth century. This is a matter of vital concern not merely for historians of modern medicine. Important clinical work has frequently been undertaken on materials which have survived, usually by chance or by the foresight …
The Rise of the Information State
This essay examines existing sociological explanations of the development of the central surveillance of citizens in the light of the English experience, and finds them wanting. Sociologists see the state using surveillance for the benefit of capitalist elites, to reimpose social control over the "society of strangers" created by industrialisation. But surveillance pre-dated industrialisation, and the development of information gathering by state…
Victorian Spies
In the summer of 2001 Channel 4 ran a series of four programmes under the general heading of 'The History of Surveillance', the first of which was entitled 'Victorian Spies'. In this it was argued that in a pre-modern society there was little surveillance of information gathering, by the state, and that the development of such surveillance was a reaction to the rise of modern urban society. The state was acting to impose social control on a 'soci…
The Information State in England
Is the official collection of information on individuals inevitably leading to the creation of a 'Big Brother State'? In this innovative interdisciplinary study, Edward Higgs takes issue with writers such as Michel Foucault and Anthony Giddens who argue that state information gathering can be seen in terms of an expansion towards modernity, and as social control. Using ground-breaking historical research, Higgs reveals that, since 1500, the Engli…
The Information State in England
Reply to Victor Gatrell and Steve Hindle
The early information society
Possessing the World
William Petty and the ambitions of political arithmetic - By Ted McCormick
Identifying the English
Personal identification is very much a live political issue in Britain and this book looks at why this is the case, and why, paradoxically, the theft of identity has become ever more common as the means of identification have multiplied. Identifying the English looks not only at how criminals have been identified - branding, fingerprinting, DNA - but also at the identification of the individual with seals and signatures, of the citizen by means o…
States and statistics in the nineteenth century
Identification and Registration Practices in Transnational Perspective
Women, Occupations and Work in the Victorian Censuses Revisited
There has long been a tendency amongst historians to view the Victorian censuses of England and Wales as a problematic source for studying the work of women. This article examines some of the key works underpinning this claim and shows their shortcomings, especially in relation to their extrapolation from isolated local studies to the national picture. Drawing upon comparisons between local census returns in East Anglia and London, and other nomi…
UK birth registration and its present discontents
Information and Power in History
Sociology (16 works) · History (15 works) · Political science (12 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Historical Economic and Social Studies (9 works) · Geography (8 works) · History (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Library science (7 works) · Politics (7 works)