Books by James A. Davis

Maryland, My Maryland" was one of the most popular Confederate songs during the American Civil War, yet its story is full of ironies that draw attention to the often painful and contradictory actions and beliefs that were both cause and effect of the war. James A. Davis illuminates the incongruities underlying this Civil War anthem and what they reveal about patriotism during the war.

This monograph is not statistical. It looks instead at pre-statistical assumptions about dependent variables and causal order. Professor Davis spells out the logical principles that underlie our ideas of causality and explains how to discover causal direction, irrespective of the statistical technique used. He stresses throughout that knowledge of the `real world'' is important and repeatedly challenges the myth that causal problems can be solved by statistical calculations alone.

The answers to questions on a wide variety of social and political issues from more than 25,000 respondents are contained in the General Social Survey (GSS) data base. The authors, who have directed the GSS since its inception, have set out to enable social scientists to exploit this large data set more effectively.