Reviewed by James J. Tucker, III Widener University

This book is the product of dissertation research efforts initiated by Thomas M. Porter in 1979. One is initially impressed with the depth and breadth of the research which is truly exceptional. There are over 700 footnote citations many of which are from French and German literature. Porter has skillfully synthesized a number of major themes including the role of the natural and social sciences in the evolution of statistics, and the impact of statistics on society as a whole as evidenced by the influence of statistics on the formulation of policy in both the public and private sectors. These major themes are also examined and analyzed in relation to the philosophy of science.

The book is divided into four “Parts” with each Part containing two or three chapters for a total of nine chapters. Although the title of the book indicates that the period examined is 1820 to 1900, the first chapter begins with a substantive discussion of the development of “Statistics as a Social Science” beginning in the 1660s. Similarly, the last chapter and the conclusion contain a number of references to twentieth-century literature.

Porter has successfully increased the book’s comprehensibility by very limited use of mathematical formulas and notation; however it is not an “easy read.” It would be beneficial to the reader to have a general familiarity with the various European and American intellectual movements circa 1750-1900 regarding the political economy and the role of science in societal development.

Porter presents the evolution of statistics from the “… sys-tematic study of social numbers …” during the 1660s, known as “political arithmetic”, to the concept of “statistical law” first proposed about 1830, to the laying of the foundations of mathematical statistics which occurred between 1890 and 1930. He describes in detail the debates that invariably ensue when paradigmatic change is proposed, and the interdisciplinary consequences of change. A major topic examined by Porter which should have broad appeal is the evolution of the probability distribution that is referred to by Galton as the “supreme law of unreason.” Porter carefully traces the origins and related debates of this “law”, which is now referred to as the Gaussian or normal distribution. He concludes that the normal distribution “… is practically coextensive with the history of statistical mathematics during the nineteenth century, and its reinterpretation as a law of genuine variation, rather than of mere error, was the central achievement of nineteenth-century statistical thought.”

Since this reviewer is more inclined to associate mathematical statistics with applied empirical research, one facet of this book which was particularly interesting is the significant impact that the development of mathematical statistics had on social philosophers of this era. For instance, one philosophical question which arose was, if probabilistic models can be developed to predict crime rates, suicide rates, etc., does man, in fact, have a free will, individually or collectively?

Since both statistics and accounting attempt to measure and depict attributes of some underlying phenomenon, accounting researchers would benefit by studying Porter’s painstaking approach and methods in attempting to reveal the intellectual evolution of an academic discipline and the resulting societal impact. This book would especially benefit those accounting researchers who study the effects of accounting and information systems on organizations and society. Persons who have a strong interest in the development of mathematical statistics will find Porter’s work to be fascinating. Lastly, the reviewer highly recommends this book to those who have a high regard for the interdisciplinary approach to the philosophy of science as manifested by Thomas S. Kuhn in his classic, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions [1970].

REFERENCE
Kuhn, T. S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd edition. Chicago: Univer-sity of Chicago Press, 1970.