Author: M. Norton Wise

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 1997-04-06

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 9780691016016

This finite study examines how exactitude has come to occupy such a prominent place in Western culture. Beginning with the late 18th century and continuing into the 20th, the essays here support the view that centralizing states and large-scale commercial enterprises have long been the major promoters of numerical precision. Photos & illus.