"It is hard to write engagingly about insurance and the history of statistics. Bouk has succeeded in this feat . . . a very ambitious book." ― The American Historical ReviewLong before the age of "Big Data" or the rise of today's "self-quantifiers," American capitalism embraced "risk"—and proceeded to number our days. Life insurers led the way, developing numerical practices for measuring individuals and groups, predicting their fates, and...

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2022From the historian Dan Bouk, a lesson in reading between the lines of the U.S. census to uncover the stories behind the data.The census isn't just a data-collection process; it's a ritual, and a tool, of American democracy. Behind every neat grid of numbers is a collage of messy, human stories—you just have to know how to read them.In Democracy's Data, t...

The census isn't just a data-collection process; it's a ritual, and a tool, of American democracy. Behind every neat grid of numbers is a collage of messy, human stories—you just have to know how to read them.In Democracy's Data, the data historian Dan Bouk examines the 1940 U.S. census, uncovering what those numbers both condense and cleverly abstract: a universe of meaning and uncertainty, of cultural negotiation and political struggle. He introduces us to the men and wo...