Statistics, Public Debate and the State, 1800–1945: A Social, Political and Intellectual History of Numbers

Jean-Guy Prévost; Jean Pierre Beaud

Statistics, Public Debate and the State, 1800–1945

A Social, Political and Intellectual History of Numbers

Search within full text

Based around a number of illustrative case studies, this book charts the development of our modern-day reliance on statistics. Topics covered include scientific innovations, administrative issues and the use of numbers in politics. By looking at these aspects of statistics together, the authors are able to present a truly original work – one that provides an international perspective on the rhetoric of numbers.

"'Prévost and Beaud’s study combines technical statistical expertise with engaging and accessible historical narrative. Their path-breaking work bridges disciplinary divides as it offers new insight into the power of numbers.'"

- Aa Reduce text
- Aa Enlarge text

View selected items
Save to my bookmarks
Export citations
Download PDF (zip)
Save to Kindle
Save to Dropbox
Save to Google Drive
Save content to
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to .

To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Please be advised that item(s) you selected are not available.
You are about to save
Your Kindle email address

Please provide your Kindle email.

@free.kindle.com @kindle.com (service fees apply)

By using this service, you agree that you will only keep content for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Total number of HTML views: 0

Total number of PDF views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

Total views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

Statistics, Public Debate and the State, 1800–1945

A Social, Political and Intellectual History of Numbers

Book description

Reviews

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv

CONTENTS
pp v-vi

List of Figures and Tables
pp vii-viii

Acknowledgements
pp ix-x

Introduction
pp 1-8

1 - Percentages and the Emergence of Statistical Objectivity
pp 9-26

2 - The Republic of Numbers: Robert Gourlay and the Art of the Statistical Account
pp 27-48

3 - Adolphe Quetelet and the Expanded Reproduction of ‘Statistism’
pp 49-62

4 - Form as Content: The Establishment of National Statistical Systems
pp 63-90

5 - Immigration and Population Growth: An American Statistical Controversy
pp 91-110

6 - The Epitaph of Imperial Statistics
pp 111-132

7 - Statistical Expertise and the Twilight of Liberal Italy
pp 133-152

8 - Politics of the Sampling Revolution
pp 153-172

Notes
pp 173-206

Works Cited
pp 207-226

Index
pp 227-233

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Book summary page views

Statistics, Public Debate and the State, 1800–1945

A Social, Political and Intellectual History of Numbers

Book description

Reviews

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Save Search

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Book summary page views