A total science
Subtitle: statistics in liberal and Fascist Italy
By: Jean-Guy Prévost
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Montréal
Language: eng
Number of pages: 335
ISBN-13: 9780773535398
Subjects: Statistics; History; Statisticians; Fascism; Science and state; Statistiques; Histoire; Statisticiens; Fascisme; Politique scientifique et technique; Statistik
Other titles: Statistics in liberal and Fascist Italy
Description: "Drawing on the growing body of work devoted to the history and sociology of statistics, A Total Science offers an in-depth study of the evolution of Italian statistics as a discipline. Jean-Guy Prevost brings together aspects that are often looked at separately, such as theoretical and epistemological foundations and their practical application, along with the formation of a scientific community, its institutions, internal politics, and relations with the state." "Prevost charts how Italian statistics emerged as a full-fledged discipline, giving rise to a network of university chairs, journals, and other institutions. He focuses on episodes such as the creation of the famous Gini coefficient and the statisticians' participation in Italy's war effort and analyses the intellectual project to which most statisticians were committed: creating a quantitative social science. In doing so he reveals the political and ideological use of their work during the Fascist era."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The emergence of modern Italian statistics; title: Entrepreneurship and rivalry : statisticians in the Academy; title: The politics of expertise : statisticians and the state; title: Form and substance : a science of architectonics; title: The theory and practice of totalitarianism.