Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american economic historian and scientist”. Today it says “american economic historian and winner”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “American economic historian”. It now reads “American economist and Nobel laureate (1926–2013)”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2005
Robert William Fogel (born July 1 , 1926 ), American economic historian and scientist, Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel winner in 1993 (with Douglass North ). Fogel was born in New York City and was awarded a BA by Cornell University in 1948, an MA by Columbia University in 1960 and PhD by John Hopkins University in 1963. Fogel was a professor at John Hopkins (1958-1959), University of Rochester (1960-1965 & 1968-1975), the University of Chicago (1964-1975 & 1981-) and Harvard University (1975-1981).1Fogel married Enid Cassandra Morgan in 1949 and has two children.2He is best known as the advocate of quantitative methods in history known as cliometrics. His most famous and controversial work by far is Time on the Cross a 1974 two volume quantitative study of American slavery co-written with Stanley Engerman. In this book, Fogel argued that slaves in the American South lived better then factory workers did in the North. Fogel based this anaylsis largley on plantation records and claimed that slaves worked less, were better fed and were whipped only occusionally. Time on the Cross created a fire-storm of controversy, and many mistakenly considered Fogel a apologist for slavery. In fact, Fogel objected to slavery on moral grounds; he just thought that a purely economic grounds slavery was not unprofitable as popularly seen. Many have questioned Fogel and Engerman's research on the topic, and beyond that, have contended that using purely quantitative methods to examine slavery is inadequate.3
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 16920763.
The opening as it stood in 2010 9 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Robert William Fogel (born July 1, 1926) is an American economic historian and scientist, and winner (with Douglass North ) of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences .He is best known as a leading advocate of New economic history or cliometircs - the use of quantitative methods in history.Fogel was born in New York City , the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, where he graduated from the Stuyvesant High School in 1944.He attended Cornell University where he majored in history , with an economics minor, and became president of the campus branch of American Youth for Democracy , a communist organization.After graduation in 1948, he became a professional organizer for the Communist Party .He later rejected communism and attended Columbia University where he obtained an MA in 1958.Fogel has taught at Johns Hopkins (1958–1959), the University of Rochester (1960–1965 and 1968–1975), the University of Chicago (1964–1975 and 1981-), the University of Cambridge , where he was visiting Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions in 1975 and Harvard University (1975–1981). Fogel married Enid Cassandra Morgan in 1949 and has two children. Fogel's first major study involving cliometrics was Railroads and American Economic Growth: Essays in Econometric History (1964).This tract sought to quantify the railroads' contribution to U.S. economic growth in the 19th century.Its argument and method were each rebuttals to a long line of non-numeric historical arguments that had ascribed much to railroads without rigorous reference to economic data.Examining transportation costs for primary and secondary goods, Fogel compared the 1890 economy to a hypothetical 1890 economy in which transportation infrastructure was limited to wagons, canals and rivers.The difference in cost, or " social savings " attributable to railroads was negligible - about 1%.This conclusion made a controversial name for cliometics.The University of Chicago Magazine .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 366360274.
The opening as it stood in 2015 12 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Robert William Fogel (July 1, 1926 – June 11, 2013) was an American economic historian and scientist, and winner (with Douglass North ) of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences .As of his death, he was the Charles R.Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of American Institutions and director of the Center for Population Economics (CPE) at the University of Chicago 's Booth School of Business . He is best known as a leading advocate of New economic history or cliometrics —the use of quantitative methods in history.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 666622719.
The opening as it stood in 2020
American economic historian Robert William Fogel ( / ˈ f oʊ ɡ əl / ; July 1, 1926 – June 11, 2013) was an American economic historian and scientist, and winner (with Douglass North ) of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences . As of his death, he was the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of American Institutions and director of the Center for Population Economics (CPE) at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business . He is best known as an advocate of new economic history ( cliometrics ) – the use of quantitative methods in history.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 964801127.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
American economist and historian (1926–2013) Robert William Fogel ( / ˈ f oʊ ɡ əl / ; July 1, 1926 – June 11, 2013) was an American economic historian and scientist, and winner (with Douglass North ) of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences . As of his death, he was the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of American Institutions and director of the Center for Population Economics (CPE) at the University of Chicago 's Booth School of Business . He is best known as an advocate of new economic history ( cliometrics ) – the use of quantitative methods in history.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1160990683.
The opening as it stood in 2025
American economist and historian (1926–2013) Robert William Fogel ( / ˈ f oʊ ɡ əl / ; July 1, 1926 – June 11, 2013) was an American economic historian and winner (with Douglass North ) of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences . As of his death, he was the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of American Institutions and director of the Center for Population Economics (CPE) at the University of Chicago 's Booth School of Business . He is best known as an advocate of new economic history ( cliometrics ) – the use of quantitative methods in history.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1298160010. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american economic historian and scientist”. Today it says “american economic historian and winner”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “American economic historian”. It now reads “American economist and Nobel laureate (1926–2013)”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since October 7, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
american economic historian and scientist
Now
american economic historian and winner
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
