%0 Journal Article
%T Review of The Triumph of Numbers by I. B. Cohen
%A H.L. Vacher
%J Numeracy
%D 2008
%I 
%X I. Bernard Cohen, The Triumph of Numbers: How Counting Shaped Modern Life. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005). 209 pp. $24.95 (USA). ISBN 0-393-05769-0.The premier historian of science ends his career telling how the world has become awash in numbers¡ª¡°how numbers entered the conduct of life and of government, the understanding of nature, and the analysis of societies.¡± The stories begin with Kepler and end with Florence Nightingale. In between, major players include Galileo, Harvey, Leeuwenhoek, and Halley; Graunt and Petty; Jefferson and Franklin; Lavoisier, Sinclair, Pinel and Louis; Guerry and Quetelet. The book tells of the spread of what Cohen refers to as the ¡°quantifying spirit¡± from physical science to ¡°political arithmetic¡± (Sir William Petty), economics, and the beginning of psychiatry, sociology, medical statistics, and public health.
%K history of science
%K history of numeracy
%K quantitative literacy
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/1936-4660.1.1.7