If you’re a nerdy professor trying to avoid grading, like I am, you might want to play around with Google Lab’s new Ngram feature. The feature allows you to see how often a particular word or phrase has appeared within a large number of books over time. For examples, here is a chart comparing the use of the term “failed states” to “rogue states” from 1960 to 2010 in English language books scanned by Google Books:
Or, here is a comparison of the term “Human Security” with “Humanitarian Intervention” from 1900 to 2010 in the English language holdings:
Overall the specific terms are a minuscule portion of the total words found in the collection, but it can still be interesting to see trends…
Enjoy wasting time…
Vikash is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Asian Studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY. His main areas of academic interest are (post-) globalization, economic development, and economic freedom, with a regional focus on South Asia
This is not helping…