LITERARY scholars are using the massive digital archives assembled by Google Books to analyse cultural trends. This article in The New York  Times quotes breathless, overblown predictions of how their findings will alter the study of literature and philosophy, as if technology can magically transform our understanding of intellectual history and ideas. Still, it’s interesting to see how cultural trends can be quantified through changes in book titles. Professors at George Mason University, for instance, have documented the rise of skepticism in the 19th century.  From 1840 to 1910, the number of all books with ‘Christianity’ or ‘God’ in their titles declined from almost two percent to below .4 percent. Also, the word “universal” became much less common.

Please follow and like us: