Numbers and the Making of Us
Title | Numbers and the Making of Us PDF eBook |
Author | Caleb Everett |
Publisher | Harvard University Press |
Pages | 308 |
Release | 2017-03-13 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 0674504437 |
“A fascinating book.” —James Ryerson, New York Times Book Review A Smithsonian Best Science Book of the Year Winner of the PROSE Award for Best Book in Language & Linguistics Carved into our past and woven into our present, numbers shape our perceptions of the world far more than we think. In this sweeping account of how the invention of numbers sparked a revolution in human thought and culture, Caleb Everett draws on new discoveries in psychology, anthropology, and linguistics to reveal the many things made possible by numbers, from the concept of time to writing, agriculture, and commerce. Numbers are a tool, like the wheel, developed and refined over millennia. They allow us to grasp quantities precisely, but recent research confirms that they are not innate—and without numbers, we could not fully grasp quantities greater than three. Everett considers the number systems that have developed in different societies as he shares insights from his fascinating work with indigenous Amazonians. “This is bold, heady stuff... The breadth of research Everett covers is impressive, and allows him to develop a narrative that is both global and compelling... Numbers is eye-opening, even eye-popping.” —New Scientist “A powerful and convincing case for Everett’s main thesis: that numbers are neither natural nor innate to humans.” —Wall Street Journal
America by the Numbers
Title | America by the Numbers PDF eBook |
Author | Emmanuel Didier |
Publisher | MIT Press |
Pages | 433 |
Release | 2020-04-07 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 0262357410 |
How new techniques of quantification shaped the New Deal and American democracy. When the Great Depression struck, the US government lacked tools to assess the situation; there was no reliable way to gauge the unemployment rate, the number of unemployed, or how many families had abandoned their farms to become migrants. In America by the Numbers, Emmanuel Didier examines the development in the 1930s of one such tool: representative sampling. Didier describes and analyzes the work of New Deal agricultural economists and statisticians who traveled from farm to farm, in search of information that would be useful for planning by farmers and government agencies. Didier shows that their methods were not just simple enumeration; these new techniques of quantification shaped the New Deal and American democracy even as the New Deal shaped the evolution of statistical surveys. Didier explains how statisticians had to become detectives and anthropologists, searching for elements that would help them portray America as a whole. Representative surveys were one of the most effective instruments for their task. He examines pre-Depression survey techniques; the invention of the random sampling method and the development of the Master Sample; and the application of random sampling by employment experts to develop the “Trial Census of Unemployment.”
America by the Numbers
Title | America by the Numbers PDF eBook |
Author | William H. Frey |
Publisher | |
Pages | 222 |
Release | 2001 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 9781565846418 |
Discusses the makeup of the U.S. population covering such issues as race, immigration, language, wealth, and sexuality.
Count on Us
Title | Count on Us PDF eBook |
Author | Michael Shoulders |
Publisher | |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2003 |
Genre | Counting |
ISBN | 9781585361311 |
This fun colorful, and superbly informative book teaches children about numbers using recognizable places, events, and facts from the state of Tennessee.
Datapedia of the United States
Title | Datapedia of the United States PDF eBook |
Author | George Thomas Kurian |
Publisher | Bernan Press |
Pages | 761 |
Release | 2007-10-30 |
Genre | Reference |
ISBN | 1598882589 |
Presents available data and statistics on social, economic, political, and cultural developments in such areas as energy, housing, and health care.
U.S. Army by the Numbers
Title | U.S. Army by the Numbers PDF eBook |
Author | Lisa M. Bolt Simons |
Publisher | Capstone |
Pages | 33 |
Release | 2014 |
Genre | Juvenile Nonfiction |
ISBN | 1476539170 |
"Describes aspects of the U.S. Army using numbers, stats, and info graphics"--
Numbers Are Us
Title | Numbers Are Us PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | Keeok Park |
Pages | 148 |
Release | |
Genre | |
ISBN | 0984344632 |