Statistics on the Table: The History of Statistical Concepts and Methods [Paperback]

Stephen M. Stigler (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0674009797 | ISBN-13: 978-0674009790 | Publication Date: September 30, 2002

This lively collection of essays examines in witty detail the history of some of the concepts involved in bringing statistical argument "to the table," and some of the pitfalls that have been encountered. The topics range from seventeenth-century medicine and the circulation of blood, to the cause of the Great Depression and the effect of the California gold discoveries of 1848 upon price levels, to the determinations of the shape of the Earth and the speed of light, to the meter of Virgil's poetry and the prediction of the Second Coming of Christ. The title essay tells how the statistician Karl Pearson came to issue the challenge to put "statistics on the table" to the economists Marshall, Keynes, and Pigou in 1911. The 1911 dispute involved the effect of parental alcoholism upon children, but the challenge is general and timeless: important arguments require evidence, and quantitative evidence requires statistical evaluation. Some essays examine deep and subtle statistical ideas such as the aggregation and regression paradoxes; others tell of the origin of the Average Man and the evaluation of fingerprints as a forerunner of the use of DNA in forensic science. Several of the essays are entirely nontechnical; all examine statistical ideas with an ironic eye for their essence and what their history can tell us about current disputes.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Stigler (Univ. of Chicago) is an expert on the history of statistics. His book is not a complete survey of the subject but a well-selected collection of 22 essaysAsome involving major central mathematical ideas, others of a more popular natureAthat vividly explore a number of interesting topics about a subject with so many diverse applications. Stigler covers mainly European and American contributions to the field of statistics from the 1700s to the 1960s and 1970s. Other works by the same author related to this topic are American Contributions to Mathematical Statistics in the Nineteenth Century and The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty Before 1900. Recommended for large public libraries, academic libraries, and specialized collections in the history of sciences and the history of statistics.ANestor Osorio, Northern Illinois Univ. Libs., DeKalb
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

It is great to have these essays collected in one volume . . . Irony and self-referencing humor abound in this book, making it entertaining; and clear exposition, thorough research, and insightful descriptions of key developments and personalities make it very much worth your time and money. (Russell V. Lenth, American Statistician ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (September 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674009797
• ISBN-13: 978-0674009790
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #729,497 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful historical account of the growth of statistics in science, February 12, 2008

By 

Michael R. Chernick "statman31147" (Holland PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Statistics on the Table: The History of Statistical Concepts and Methods (Hardcover)

Stephen Stigler is a well-known statistician and author. He is also one of the few statisticians to do intense research on historical facts related to the development of the field. He has written other fine books on the history of statistics. This book concentrates on stories in the history of statistics where statistical analyses were done that had an impact and the statisticians laid their cards on the table. Too often, even today claims are made that require statistical evidence but the evidence is lacking, or some of the assumptions are hidden. Starting with the controversy between Karl Pearson and the Cambridge economists, Stigler shows how important it is to bring out the assumptions and methods used to make the case convincing and how not to fall into subtle traps. He also points out that attribution of a method to a person does not usually go to the discoverer. He calls it Stigler's Law of Eponymy. Examples include Chebychev's inequality discovered earlier by Bienayme and the Gaussian distribution associated with Gauss but known earlier by De Moivre and Laplace. He also includes a chapter questioning whether Thomas Bayes was the discoverer of Bayes's Theorem.
Well written and thoroughly researched, this is a great reference book on aspects of the history of statistics. This book is typical of what we have learned to expect from Stigler.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book to understand where statistical ideas come from., July 27, 2005

By 

Francesco Lovecchio (Rome, Italy) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Statistics on the Table: The History of Statistical Concepts and Methods (Hardcover)

The author is a well-known statistician who has also a gift as historian. The book is a collection of essays on the development of the main ideas in Statistics. These essays are not in chronological order and overlap on several points. That can create some confusion in the reader. The first essay is about the controversy on the effect of parents' alcoholism on children between Karl Pearson and the Cambridge economists (A. Marshall, J.M. Keynes, A. Pigou). While Pearson expected harsh criticism from the medical profession he was unexpectedly broadsided by economists on the ground of logic instead of data. Pearson's response was: statistics on the table, please. The book goes on clarifying the developments of the main ideas in the field: Central Limit Theorem, Normal distribution, least squares, degrees of freedom, regression, Bayes's Theorem, and so on. It also provide the role of famous mathematicians like Gauss, Laplace, Legendre and others. However, Pearson, Galton and Edgeworth maintain a high visibility in the book. It is not a reference book of the historical development of ideas and intuitions in Statistics, and few chapters reflect more the interest of the author than the coherence with the title "Statistics on the Table. The History of Statistical Concepts and Methods" like in Statistics and Standards, and The Trial of the Pyx, or Apollo Mathematicus. Outstanding and funny is the chapter Stigler's law of Eponymy, which states that no scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer. It is definitively an enjoyable reading and I strongly recommend it to whoever has an interest, weak or strong, in the subject.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An informative introduction to statistics and their uses., March 3, 2000

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Statistics on the Table: The History of Statistical Concepts and Methods (Hardcover)

These essays examine some of the basic concepts involved in bringing statistical argument to the table, and considers the history of statistics and their methods and use. Essential to any college-level math course on the topic, Statistics on the Table probes how statisticians link statistics to social issues and daily life, providing essays which examine statistical ideas and their impact.