Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas and Statistical Breviary

This full colour reproduction, with new explanatory information, makes Playfair's wisdom widely available for the first time in centuries.

William Playfair (Author), Howard Wainer (Introduction by), Ian Spence (Introduction by)

9780521855549, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 September 2005

248 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.1 cm, 0.701 kg

'Wainer and Spence have done us a great service by making Playfair's two books available again. … The book is delightful reading …'. The Mathematical Association of America Online

A scientific revolution began at the end of the eighteenth century with the invention and popularization of the graphic display of data by the remarkable Scot, William Playfair. His marvellous Atlas showed how much could be learned if one plotted data atheoretically and looked for suggestive patterns. Those patterns provide evidence, albeit circumstantial, on which to build new science. Playfair's work has much to teach us, but finding a copy has been almost impossible. Until now. This full colour reproduction of two of his classic works, with new explanatory material, makes Playfair's wisdom widely available for the first time in two centuries.

Introduction Howard Wainer and Ian Spence
The Commercial and Political Alas
The Statistical Breviary.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX], Probability & statistics [PBT], Data analysis: general [GPH]