cliometrician

But, of course, you can use a computer without being a 'Cliometrician.' "

The abolitionists' picture of slavery, quite at odds with that of our cliometrician, and the methods they used to destroy slavery, cause "agonizing dilemmas and paradoxes" for an author who set out to resolve moral dilemmas.

Mr. Le Roy Ladurie, who teaches European history at the College de France, said: "I was a 'Cliometrician' when I was much younger, but in a much less sophisticated way than the Americans.

His new book is a much more humane work than his cold-blooded and controversial "Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Slavery," which he wrote 15 years ago with Stanley L. Engerman, a fellow cliometrician.