Description
Book SynopsisThe Empire of Chance tells how quantitative ideas of chance transformed the natural and social sciences, as well as daily life, in the last three centuries. It connects the earliest applications of probability and statistics in gambling and insurance to the most recent forays into law, medicine polling and baseball.
Trade Review'The book provides a welcome introduction to the main historical themes of probability, statistics and inference. It is, at the same time, impressive in its range and subject-matter and in its depth of analysis.' The Times Higher Education Supplement
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Classical probabilities, 1660–1840; 2. Statistical probabilities, 1820–1900; 3. The inference experts; 4. Chance and life: controversies in modern biology; 5. The probabilistic revolution in physics; 6. Statistics of the mind; 7. Numbers rule the world; 8. The implications of chance; References; Name index; Subject index.
