The politics of large numbers : a history of statistical reasoning
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The politics of large numbers : a history of statistical reasoning
Harvard University Press, 1998
- : hbk
- : pbk
- Other Title
-
La politique des grands nombres : histoire de la raison statistique
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Note
Translation of: La politique des grands nombres : histoire de la raison statistique
Includes bibliographical references (p. 343-357) and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9780674009691
Description
Statistics-driven thinking is ubiquitous in modern society. In this ambitious and sophisticated study of the history of statistics, which begins with probability theory in the seventeenth century, Alain Desrosieres shows how the evolution of modern statistics has been inextricably bound up with the knowledge and power of governments. He traces the complex reciprocity between modern governments and the mathematical artifacts that both dictate the duties of the state and measure its successes.
No other work, in any language, covers such a broad spectrum--probability, mathematical statistics, psychology, economics, sociology, surveys, public health, medical statistics--in accurately synthesizing the history of statistics, with an emphasis on the conceptual development of social statistics, culminating in twentieth-century applied econometrics.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Arguing from Social Facts Prefects and Geometers Judges and Astronomers Averages and the Realism of Aggregates Correlation and the Realism of Causes Statistics and the State: France and Great Britain Statistics and the State: Germany and the United States The Part for the Whole: Monographs or Representative Sampling Classifying and Encoding Modeling and Adjusting Conclusion: Disputing the Indisputable
- Volume
-
: hbk ISBN 9780674689329
Description
Statistics-driven thinking is ubiquitous in modern society. In this study of the history of statistics, which begins with probability theory in the 17th century, Alain Desrosieres shows how the evolution of modern statistics has been inextricably bound up with the knowledge and power of governments. He traces the complex reciprocity between modern governments and the mathematical artifacts that both dictate the duties of the state and measure its successes.
Table of Contents
- Introduction - arguing from social facts
- prefects and geometrics
- judges and astronomers
- averages and the realism of aggregates
- correlation and the realism of causes
- statistics and the state - France and Great Britain
- statistics and the state - Germany and the United States
- the part for the whole - monographs or representative sampling
- classifying and encoding
- modelling and adjusting
- conclusion - disputing the indisputable.
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