Empire of the Census
The government’s count of its citizens is of enormous value to historians.
I recently embarked on the sort of history most commonly pursued in this country: genealogy. By comparison with what I usually work on, this means focusing on people who are, for me, startlingly close in time – only some 140 years or so ago – yet these folk, too, are seen only darkly; so much is unknown. Yet, one source that helps bring our ancestors into focus is the census.
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