Sum of Us

A History of the UK in Data

(Autor) Georgina Sturge
Formato: Hardcover
£25,00 Precio: £23,75 (5% off)
In Stock

What has data ever done for us? Georgina Sturge, House of Commons Library statistician and author of the critically acclaimed Bad Data, explores the rich history of the times the UK has counted itself - from the revolutionary first census of 1801 to modern worries over technological surveillance. Condensing a whole society into numbers brought hidden problems to light: mapping cholera deaths in Soho led researchers to a single deadly water pump; Florence Nightingale stunned the Victorian establishment with her diagrams showing disease was the soldier's hidden enemy; and the discovery that industries like firework-making were almost entirely staffed by women helped improve workers' rights. The census also reveals the people left out of the nation's story. Records reveal the remarkable presence of escaped American slaves living in nineteenth century Leeds, and that by 1901 there were 600 professional Italian cooks in the UK. More recent data has acknowledged religion, ethnicity, and LGBT identity for the first time. Sturge also tracks those who have resisted the state's attempts at tabulation - people burning survey forms, stripping naked in protest and, in the case of 500 Suffragettes, avoiding the 1911 census by skating all night round Aldwych roller rink. Full of fascinating social detail, Sum of Us draws out the human stories captured in the vast tangle of data the UK has collected over two centuries. It provides a vital snapshot not of who we imagine ourselves to be - but who we really are.

Information
Editorial:
Little, Brown Book Group
Formato:
Hardcover
Número de páginas:
None
Idioma:
en
ISBN:
9780349129020
Año de publicación:
2025
Fecha publicación:
10 de Abril de 2025

Georgina Sturge

Reviews

Leave a review

Please login to leave a review.

Be the first to review this product

Other related

Default Cover

Cassino '44

Five Months of Hell in Italy

James Holland
Paperback
Publicada: 2025
Default Cover

The Siege

The Remarkable Story of the Greatest SAS Hostage Drama

Ben Macintyre
Paperback
Publicada: 2025
Default Cover

Arnhem

Black Tuesday

Al Murray
Paperback
Publicada: 2025
Meetings With Remarkable Animals

Meetings With Remarkable Animals

Martin Clunes
Paperback
Publicada: 2025
Default Cover

Endgame 1944

How Stalin Won The War

Jonathan Dimbleby
Paperback
Publicada: 2025
Default Cover

Hercules

Scott Bateman
Paperback
Publicada: 2025