Prosopography

In the mid-twentieth century, another major contribution was a large project in what the Greeks called prosopography, or collective biography. ❋ David Hackett Fischer (2008)

Chapter One employs a prosopography of over one thousand trade unionists and Working Men's Party operatives based on an extensive analysis of census, tax list, probate, insolvency, and other documents. ❋ Unknown (2006)

John Frazee within the home by utilizing a prosopography of New York's organized men between 1800 and 1840. ❋ Unknown (2006)

The Randolphs of Turkey Island: A prosopography of the first three generations, 1650-1806 Ph.D. diss., College of William and Mary, 1977. ❋ James Burke (2007)

It can stand with such a tower of prosopography as Sir Ronald Syme's The Roman Revolution 1939, repr. variously. ❋ Patrick J. Smith (2007)

V. -- I pardon this epitrope, but pray use less metaphor and more litotes in the prosopography you dedicate to my modest entity -- ❋ Various (N/A)

Despite all differences of approach, he himself wrote only two years ago, "Ronald Syme wrote superbly and authoritatively when he used prosopography to clarify a revolutionary movement ” the upsurge of new social strata under Augustus" (English Historical Review, 1973, p. 115; compare his review of The Roman Revolution reprinted in Secondo Contributo alla Storia degli Studi Classici, 1960, 207 f. and his remarks in Studi Romani 14, 1966, 1-3). ❋ Lloyd-Jones, Hugh (1976)

But in my review of Syme's book in Journal of Roman Studies 1940, 73, I also expressed my fundamental objection to prosopography as a method of interpreting history: "Prosopographical research has the great virtue of reaching individuals or small groups, but does not explain their material or spiritual needs: it simply presupposes them. ❋ Lloyd-Jones, Hugh (1976)

In the wrong hands, the kind of history that concentrates upon economic problems can be quite as bad as ” and even more boring than ” bad prosopography. ❋ Lloyd-Jones, Hugh (1976)