The Triumph of Numbers

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 - for example, in taxes or 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 analysed. Cohen shines a new light on familiar figures such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Carlyle 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.

ISBN 0393328708   Pages 224 ISBN13 9780393328707 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher WW Norton & Co   Weight (grammes) 208 Imprint WW Norton & Co   Published in New York Format Paperback   Height (mm) 207 Publication date 11 Aug 2006   Width (mm) 140 DEWEY 510   Spine width (mm) 14 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level General

"Brief, lively, and highly entertaining." The New York Times"

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