Awards

• Short-listed for Los Angeles Times Book Prize 2022

Overview

From the cubit to the kilogram, the humble inch to the speed of light, measurement is a powerful tool that humans invented to make sense of the world. In this revelatory work of science and social history, James Vincent dives into its hidden world, taking readers from ancient Egypt, where measuring the annual depth of the Nile was an essential task, to the intellectual origins of the metric system in the French Revolution, and from the surprisingly animated rivalry between metric and imperial, to our current age of the “quantified self.” At every turn, Vincent is keenly attuned to the political consequences of measurement, exploring how it has also been used as a tool for oppression and control. Beyond Measure reveals how measurement is not only deeply entwined with our experience of the world, but also how its history encompasses and shapes the human quest for knowledge.

Full Product Details

9781324035855

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Reviews

A wildly ambitious book by a formidably talented young writer. -- Robert Macfarlane, bestselling author of Underland Beyond Measure offers, with much intellectual flair and style, a bracing new history. -- Pankaj Mishra, bestselling author of From the Ruins of Empire 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 and Just My Type Vivid, epic, and full of curiosities. This is a book to delight and fascinate. -- Tim Harford, author of How to Make the World Add Up An epic story about humankind's relationship with the physical world. James Vincent is an erudite and perceptive guide, who with energy and skill weaves history, science and reportage into an enthralling tale. -- Alex Bellos, author of Patterns of the Universe Delightful...One of those books that makes us look afresh at the whole of modern civilization. -- Graham Farmelo, author of The Universe Speaks in Numbers

A wildly ambitious book by a formidably talented young writer. -- Robert Macfarlane, bestselling author of Beyond Measure offers, with much intellectual flair and style, a bracing new history. -- Pankaj Mishra, bestselling author of From the Ruins of Empire 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 and Just My Type Vivid, epic, and full of curiosities. This is a book to delight and fascinate. -- Tim Harford, author of How to Make the World Add Up An epic story about humankind's relationship with the physical world. James Vincent is an erudite and perceptive guide, who with energy and skill weaves history, science and reportage into an enthralling tale. -- Alex Bellos, author of Patterns of the Universe Delightful...One of those books that makes us look afresh at the whole of modern civilization. -- Graham Farmelo, author of The Universe Speaks in Numbers

A wildly ambitious book by a formidably talented young writer. -- Robert Macfarlane, bestselling author of Beyond Measure offers, with much intellectual flair and style, a bracing new history. -- Pankaj Mishra, bestselling author of From the Ruins of Empire 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 and Just My Type A fascinating tale of how our modern world came to be. -- Lewis Dartnell, bestselling author of The Knowledge

Author Information

James Vincent is a senior reporter for the Verge, the Vox Media site devoted to technology and society. He has also written for the London Review of Books, Financial Times, and Wired. He lives in London.

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