In A Total Science, Jean-Guy Prévost 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 also analyses the intellectual project to which most statisticians were committed, that of creating a quantitative social science. In doing so he reveals the political and ideological use of the work of statisticians during the Fascist era. 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, bringing together aspects that are often looked at separately, such as theoretical and epistemological foundations, practical applications, formation of a scientific community and its institutions, inner politics, and relations with the state. | A Total Science by Jean-guy Prévost, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters