The Triumph of Numbers: How Counting Shaped Modern Life

The great historian of science I. B. Cohen explores how numbers have come to assume a leading role in science, in the operations and structure of government, in marketing, and in many other aspects of daily life. Consulting and collecting numbers has been a feature of human affairs since antiquity--taxes, head counts for military service--but not until the Scientific Revolution in the twelfth century did social numbers such as births, deaths, and marriages begin to be analyzed. Cohen shines a new light on familiar figures such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Charles Dickens; and he reveals Florence Nightingale to be a passionate statistician. Cohen has left us with an engaging and accessible history of numbers, an appreciation of the essential nature of statistics.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 07/01/2006
ISBN: 9780393328707
Pages: 209
Weight: 0.44lbs
Size: 8.24h x 5.64w x 0.58d

Review Citations: Science Books & Films 11/01/2006 pg. 257
Science Books & Films Best Bks 01/01/2007 pg. 4
Science Books & Films 07/01/2008 pg. 149