Victorians & Numbers is an ambitious history of British social statistics during the second-longest reign in British history. It encompasses the early formation of regional statistical societies, all the way through the highly technical accomplishments toward the end of the century. Any history that attempts such broad coverage is fated to be uneven; this book’s coverage is unusually so. Although well-written, it soars from early chapters with a firm scholarly grasp of a huge literature to a rough landing in the final section, which inaccurately portrays the subtle nature of some of the most creative and influential work in the century.
The book is presented in five parts. Parts I and II, “Political Arithmetic and Statistics 1660 to 1840” and “The Origins of the Statistical Movement 1825 to 1835,” are the strongest, melding a well-known background with a less-familiar era of statistical enthusiasm when statistical societies formed or met in...