title: Quantitative analysis of culture using millions of digitized books.
abstract: We constructed a corpus of digitized texts containing about 4% of all books ever printed. Analysis of this corpus enables us to investigate cultural trends quantitatively. We survey the vast terrain of 'culturomics,' focusing on linguistic and cultural phenomena that were reflected in the English language between 1800 and 2000. We show how this approach can provide insights about fields as diverse as lexicography, the evolution of grammar, collective memory, the adoption of technology, the pursuit of fame, censorship, and historical epidemiology. Culturomics extends the boundaries of rigorous quantitative inquiry to a wide array of new phenomena spanning the social sciences and the humanities.
authors.affiliation: Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. jb.michel@gmail.com
authors.forename: Jean-Baptiste
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Michel
authors.forename: Yuan Kui
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Aviva Presser
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Aiden
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Veres
authors.forename: Matthew K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.forename: Joseph P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Pickett
authors.forename: Dale
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hoiberg
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Clancy
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Norvig
authors.forename: Jon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Orwant
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pinker
authors.forename: Martin A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Nowak
authors.forename: Erez Lieberman
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Aiden
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001877:Books; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D003469:Culture; D003625:Data Collection; D004014:Dictionaries as Topic; D004690:Encyclopedias as Topic; D005197:Famous Persons; D006809:Humanities; D008037:Linguistics; D008091:Literature; D012942:Social Sciences; D013672:Technology; D014825:Vocabulary