Low Price Guarantee
We Take School POs
The Triumph of Numbers: How Counting Shaped Modern Life
Contributor(s): Cohen, I. Bernard (Author)

View larger image

ISBN: 0393328708     ISBN-13: 9780393328707
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
OUR PRICE: $19.00  

Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: July 2006
Qty:

Annotation: From the pyramids to mortality tables, Galileo to Florence Nightingale, a vibrant history of numbers and the birth of statistics. "Brief, lively, and highly entertaining."--William Grimes, "New York Times"
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.
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Mathematics | History & Philosophy
- Science | History
Dewey: 519.509
Physical Information: 0.58" H x 5.64" W x 8.24" L (0.44 lbs) 212 pages
Features: Bibliography, Ikids, Illustrated, Index, Table of Contents
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
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
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.

Contributor Bio(s): Cohen, I. Bernard: - I. Bernard Cohen (1914--2003) was Victor S. Thomas Professor, Emeritus, of the History of Science at Harvard University, where he taught from 1942 to 1984. He was the first American to receive the degree of Ph.D. in the History of Science. He was the author of many books, including Science and the Founding Fathers: Science in the Political Thought of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and James Madison; The Science of Benjamin Franklin; Revolution in Science; The Newtonian Revolution; The Birth of a New Physics; and, with Anne Whitman, Isaac Newtonís Principia: A New Translation of Newtonís Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. He edited several series of works, including Harvard Monographs in the History of Science, Three Centuries of Science in America, and the ongoing Studies & Texts in the History of Computing. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Astronomical Society, the British Academy, and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
 
Customer ReviewsSubmit your own review
 
To tell a friend about this book, you must Sign In First!