Beyond Measure

The Hidden History of Measurement

James Vincent

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9780571354238
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Science History
• Index: Biological Sciences

THE TIMES SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR
NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
FINALIST FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

A revelatory and vibrant story of measurement which will make you look at the world around you anew.

'A wildly ambitious book by a formidably talented young writer.'
ROBERT MACFARLANE

'Vivid, epic, and full of curiosities. This is a book to delight and fascinate.'
TIM HARFORD, bestselling author of How to Make the World Add Up

'Beyond Measure offers, with much intellectual flair and style, a bracing new history: how the once innocent urge to quantification took over our lives, our sense of ourselves and the world.'
PANKAJ MISHRA

'The exact value of this book is hard to quantify. Weighty, precise and satisfyingly obsessive, it's also an absolute pleasure to read.'
SIMON GARFIELD, bestselling author of The Timekeepers

We measure rainfall and radiation, the depths of space and the emptiness of atoms, calories and steps, happiness and pain. But how did measurement become ubiquitous in modern life? When did humanity first take up scales and rulers, and why does this practice hold authority over so many aspects of our lives?

Written with vim and dazzling intelligence, James Vincent provides a fresh and original perspective on human history as he tracks our long search for dependable truths in a chaotic universe. Full of mavericks and visionaries, adventure and the unexpected, Beyond Measure shows that measurement has not only made the world we live in, it has made us too.

'An epic story about humankind's relationship with the physical world. Vincent is an erudite and perceptive guide, who with energy and skill weaves history, science and reportage into an enthralling tale.'
ALEX BELLOS

'Telling the story of metrology is not easy [but] Vincent is equal to the task . . . this book is extremely good.'
THE TIMES

'This quirky history is inch-perfect.'
FINANCIAL TIMES

'Gripping.' NEW SCIENTIST
'Worth its weight in gold . . . Enlightening.' OBSERVER
'Fascinating . . . an erudiite and elegant read.' MAIL ON SUNDAY

Table of contents

• Landing Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction: Why measurement matters
• 1: The kindling of civilisation: The ancient world, the first units of measurement, and their cognitive rewards
• 2: Measure and the social order: The importance of metrology for early states and the fabric of society
• 3: The proper subject of measurement: How the scientific revolution expanded measure’s domain
• 4: The quantifying spirit: The disenchantment of the world and the history of hot and cold
• 5: The metric revolution: The radical politics of the metric system and its origin in the French Revolution
• 6: A grid laid across the world: The surveying of land, the colonisation of the US, and the power of abstraction
• 7: Measuring life and death: The invention of statistics and the birth of average
• 8: The Battle of the Standards: Metric vs imperial and metrology’s culture war
• 9: For all times, for all people: How metric units transcended physical reality and conquered the world
• 10: The managed life: Measurement’s place in modern society and in our understanding of ourselves
• Epilogue: The measures in the head
• Acknowledgements
• List of Permissions
• Index
• Illustrations
• About the Author
• Copyright