Session Abstract

This panel draws on interdisciplinary modes of research to study the history of banking failures in the United States. It will feature research that explores three different episodes of economic crisis during the twentieth century: the Panic of 1907, the Great Depression, and the Crisis of 2008. Relevant to the theme of AHA’s 2015 conference, “History and the Other Disciplines,” the papers highlight the ways in which historians are using interdisciplinary methods, such as economic statistical reasoning and natural language processing/text mining, to analyze historical data and investigate long-standing questions about the causes and effects of banking failures in the United States. By exploring the intersection between traditional archival research with the fields of economics, computer science, and sociology, the panelists will demonstrate how the methods, theories, and tools of other disciplines can advance the study and discipline of history and offer different perspectives on existing historical data. By using these methodologies, the papers together encourage American historians and economists to think anew of the issues shaping America’s economic development over time and the methods and narratives by which we tell its stories.