@book {67386,
	title = {Natural Experiments of History},
	year = {2010},
	month = {Jan 15, 2010},
	publisher = {Harvard University Press},
	organization = {Harvard University Press},
	abstract = {
Some central questions in the natural and social sciences can{\textquoteright}t be
answered by controlled laboratory experiments, often considered to be
the hallmark of the scientific method. This impossibility holds for any
science concerned with the past. In addition, many manipulative
experiments, while possible, would be considered immoral or illegal.
One has to devise other methods of observing, describing, and
explaining the world.In the historical disciplines, a fruitful approach has been to
use natural experiments or the comparative method. This book consists
of eight comparative studies drawn from history, archeology, economics,
economic history, geography, and political science. The studies cover a
spectrum of approaches, ranging from a non-quantitative narrative style
in the early chapters to quantitative statistical analyses in the later
chapters. The studies range from a simple two-way comparison of Haiti
and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola, to
comparisons of 81 Pacific islands and 233 areas of India. The societies
discussed are contemporary ones, literate societies of recent
centuries, and non-literate past societies. Geographically, they
include the United States, Mexico, Brazil, western Europe, tropical
Africa, India, Siberia, Australia, New Zealand, and other Pacific
islands.In an Afterword, the editors discuss how to cope with
methodological problems common to these and other natural experiments
of history.},
	url = {http://www.hup.harvard.edu/index.html},
	author = {Robinson, James A. and Diamond, Jared}
}
