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Zusatztext "[An] exceptionally well-crafted book...Illuminating and richly detailed." -- Paul Starr, The New Republic "An important volume...This thoughtful, original, and felicitous book deserves a broad audience." -- Michael Kammen, Journal of American History "A classic study...This elegant cultural history of how numbers became America's most powerful signs, both for reasoning and persuasion, is crucial for understanding the transformation of 19th-century America." -- Richard D. Brown, University of Connecticut Informationen zum Autor Patricia Cline Cohen is Professor of History at the University of California at Santa Barbara and author of The Murder of Helen Jewett: The Life and Death of a Prostitute in 19th Century New York (1998). Klappentext Now back in print, A Calculating People reveals how numeracy profoundly shaped the character of society in the early republic and provides a wholly original perspective on the development of modern America. Zusammenfassung Now back in print, A Calculating People reveals how numeracy profoundly shaped the character of society in the early republic and provides a wholly original perspective on the development of modern America. Inhaltsverzeichnis AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Numeracy in Seventeenth-Century England2. Colonial Counting3. Patterns and Providence4. Republican Arithmetic5. Statistics and the State6. The Census of 1840 Conclusion Notes Index
Summary
An entertaining and informative history of the birth of the American passion for numbers, tracing the history of numeracy from its origins in the Enlightenment to its flowering in mid-nineteenth century America.
