Inference and Disputed Authorship

The 1964 publication of Inference and Disputed Authorship made the cover of Time magazine and the attention of academics and the public alike for its use of statistical methodology to solve one of American history’s most notorious questions: the disputed authorship of the Federalist Papers.


 

Back in print for a new generation of readers, this classic volume applies mathematics, including the once-controversial Bayesian analysis, into the heart of a literary and historical problem by studying frequently used words in the texts. The reissue of this landmark book will be welcomed by anyone interested in the juncture of history, political science, and authorship.

Frederick Mosteller (1916–2006) was professor of statistics at Harvard University.
David L. Wallace is professor emeritus of statistics at the University of Chicago.

 

 

 

Erhard W. Hinrichs is professor of general and computational linguistics at the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen in Germany. John Nerbonne is professor of information science at the University of Groningen, Netherlands.