
The Sum of the People
How the Census Has Shaped Nations, from the Ancient World to the Modern Age
No se pudo agregar al carrito
Add to Cart failed.
Error al Agregar a Lista de Deseos.
Error al eliminar de la lista de deseos.
Error al añadir a tu biblioteca
Error al seguir el podcast
Error al dejar de seguir el podcast
$0.99/mes por los primeros 3 meses

Compra ahora por $21.83
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrado por:
-
David Piggott
-
De:
-
Andrew Whitby
Acerca de esta escucha
This fascinating 3,000-year history of the census traces the making of the modern survey and explores its political power in the age of big data and surveillance.
In April 2020, the United States will embark on what has been called "the largest peacetime mobilization in American history": the decennial population census. It is part of a tradition of counting people that goes back at least three millennia and now spans the globe.
In The Sum of the People, data scientist Andrew Whitby traces the remarkable history of the census, from ancient China and the Roman Empire, through revolutionary America and Nazi-occupied Europe, to the steps of the Supreme Court. Marvels of democracy, instruments of exclusion, and, at worst, tools of tyranny and genocide, censuses have always profoundly shaped the societies we've built. Today, as we struggle to resist the creep of mass surveillance, the traditional census - direct and transparent - may offer the seeds of an alternative.
©2020 Andrew Whitby (P)2020 Basic BooksLos oyentes también disfrutaron...
-
Democracy's Data
- The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them
- De: Dan Bouk
- Narrado por: Mike Chamberlain
- Duración: 11 h y 3 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Dan Bouk examines the 1940 U.S. census, uncovering what those numbers both condense and cleverly abstract: a universe of meaning and uncertainty, of cultural negotiation and political struggle. He takes us into the makeshift halls of the Census Bureau, where hundreds of civil servants, not to mention machines, labored with pencil and paper to divide and conquer the nation's data. And he uses these little points to paint bigger pictures, such as of the ruling hand of white supremacy, the place of queer people in straight systems, and the struggle of ordinary people.
-
-
A good book for a genealogist’s reading list
- De Candice en 10-28-22
De: Dan Bouk
-
The Age of Wood
- Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization
- De: Roland Ennos
- Narrado por: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Duración: 8 h y 25 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
As the dominant species on Earth, humans have made astonishing progress since our ancestors came down from the trees. But how did the descendants of small primates manage to walk upright, become top predators, and populate the world? How were humans able to develop civilizations and produce a globalized economy? Now, in The Age of Wood, Roland Ennos shows for the first time that the key to our success has been our relationship with wood.
-
-
Great text; poor narration
- De Richard Yates en 08-03-21
De: Roland Ennos
-
Counting Americans
- How the US Census Classified the Nation
- De: Paul Schor
- Narrado por: Christopher Grove
- Duración: 12 h y 51 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
By tracing the evolution of the categories the United States used to count and classify its population from 1790 to 1940, Schor shows that, far from being simply a reflection of society or a mere instrument of power, censuses are actually complex negotiations between the state, experts, and the population itself. The census is not an administrative or scientific act, but a political one. Counting Americans is a social history exploring the political stakes that pitted various interests and groups of people against each other as population categories were constantly redefined.
De: Paul Schor
-
America for Americans
- A History of Xenophobia in the United States
- De: Erika Lee
- Narrado por: Shayna Small
- Duración: 13 h y 37 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
The United States is known as a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of xenophobia. Here, Erika Lee shows that an irrational fear, hatred, and hostility toward immigrants has been a defining feature of our nation from the colonial era to the Trump era. Benjamin Franklin ridiculed Germans for their "strange and foreign ways." Americans' anxiety over Irish Catholics turned xenophobia into a national political movement. Forcing us to confront this history, America for Americans explains how xenophobia works, why it has endured, and how it threatens America.
-
-
Essential to Understanding America
- De Edward Chin-Lyn en 11-09-20
De: Erika Lee
-
Enlightenment Now
- The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
- De: Steven Pinker
- Narrado por: Arthur Morey
- Duración: 19 h y 49 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West but worldwide.
-
-
We live in the best of all times
- De Neuron en 02-25-18
De: Steven Pinker
-
The Decline and Rise of Democracy
- A Global History from Antiquity to Today
- De: David Stastavage
- Narrado por: Tom Perkins
- Duración: 11 h y 34 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Historical accounts of democracy's rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer - democratic practices were present in many places at many other times. David Stasavage makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished - and when and why they declined - can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future.
-
-
Informative
- De Frank en 12-22-20
De: David Stastavage
-
Democracy's Data
- The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them
- De: Dan Bouk
- Narrado por: Mike Chamberlain
- Duración: 11 h y 3 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Dan Bouk examines the 1940 U.S. census, uncovering what those numbers both condense and cleverly abstract: a universe of meaning and uncertainty, of cultural negotiation and political struggle. He takes us into the makeshift halls of the Census Bureau, where hundreds of civil servants, not to mention machines, labored with pencil and paper to divide and conquer the nation's data. And he uses these little points to paint bigger pictures, such as of the ruling hand of white supremacy, the place of queer people in straight systems, and the struggle of ordinary people.
-
-
A good book for a genealogist’s reading list
- De Candice en 10-28-22
De: Dan Bouk
-
The Age of Wood
- Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization
- De: Roland Ennos
- Narrado por: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Duración: 8 h y 25 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
As the dominant species on Earth, humans have made astonishing progress since our ancestors came down from the trees. But how did the descendants of small primates manage to walk upright, become top predators, and populate the world? How were humans able to develop civilizations and produce a globalized economy? Now, in The Age of Wood, Roland Ennos shows for the first time that the key to our success has been our relationship with wood.
-
-
Great text; poor narration
- De Richard Yates en 08-03-21
De: Roland Ennos
-
Counting Americans
- How the US Census Classified the Nation
- De: Paul Schor
- Narrado por: Christopher Grove
- Duración: 12 h y 51 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
By tracing the evolution of the categories the United States used to count and classify its population from 1790 to 1940, Schor shows that, far from being simply a reflection of society or a mere instrument of power, censuses are actually complex negotiations between the state, experts, and the population itself. The census is not an administrative or scientific act, but a political one. Counting Americans is a social history exploring the political stakes that pitted various interests and groups of people against each other as population categories were constantly redefined.
De: Paul Schor
-
America for Americans
- A History of Xenophobia in the United States
- De: Erika Lee
- Narrado por: Shayna Small
- Duración: 13 h y 37 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
The United States is known as a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of xenophobia. Here, Erika Lee shows that an irrational fear, hatred, and hostility toward immigrants has been a defining feature of our nation from the colonial era to the Trump era. Benjamin Franklin ridiculed Germans for their "strange and foreign ways." Americans' anxiety over Irish Catholics turned xenophobia into a national political movement. Forcing us to confront this history, America for Americans explains how xenophobia works, why it has endured, and how it threatens America.
-
-
Essential to Understanding America
- De Edward Chin-Lyn en 11-09-20
De: Erika Lee
-
Enlightenment Now
- The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
- De: Steven Pinker
- Narrado por: Arthur Morey
- Duración: 19 h y 49 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West but worldwide.
-
-
We live in the best of all times
- De Neuron en 02-25-18
De: Steven Pinker
-
The Decline and Rise of Democracy
- A Global History from Antiquity to Today
- De: David Stastavage
- Narrado por: Tom Perkins
- Duración: 11 h y 34 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Historical accounts of democracy's rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer - democratic practices were present in many places at many other times. David Stasavage makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished - and when and why they declined - can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future.
-
-
Informative
- De Frank en 12-22-20
De: David Stastavage
-
The Sovereign Individual
- Mastering the Transition to the Information Age
- De: James Dale Davidson, Peter Thiel - preface, William Rees-Mogg
- Narrado por: Michael David Axtell
- Duración: 19 h y 20 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Two renowned investment advisors and authors of the best seller The Great Reckoning bring to light both currents of disaster and the potential for prosperity and renewal in the face of radical changes in human history as we move into the next century. The Sovereign Individual details strategies necessary for adapting financially to the next phase of Western civilization.
-
-
Unfortunately distopian for mosty of humanity
- De Phil en 09-29-20
De: James Dale Davidson, y otros
-
Why Nations Fail
- The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
- De: Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson
- Narrado por: Dan Woren
- Duración: 17 h y 55 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?
-
-
Pros and Cons of "Why Nations Fail"
- De Joshua Kim en 05-01-12
De: Daron Acemoglu, y otros
-
The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution
- De: Francis Fukuyama
- Narrado por: Jonathan Davis
- Duración: 22 h y 34 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Virtually all human societies were once organized tribally, yet over time most developed new political institutions which included a central state that could keep the peace and uniform laws that applied to all citizens. Some went on to create governments that were accountable to their constituents. We take these institutions for granted, but they are absent or are unable to perform in many of today’s developing countries—with often disastrous consequences for the rest of the world.
-
-
Few forests, but lots of trees
- De Steve Pagano en 10-05-15
De: Francis Fukuyama
-
The Fourth Turning Is Here
- What the Seasons of History Tell Us About How and When This Crisis Will End
- De: Neil Howe
- Narrado por: Neil Howe
- Duración: 20 h y 29 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Twenty-five years ago, Neil Howe and the late William Strauss dazzled the world with a provocative new theory of American history. Looking back at the last 500 years, they’d uncovered a distinct pattern: modern history moves in cycles, each one lasting roughly 80 to 100 years, the length of a long human life, with each cycle composed of four eras—or “turnings”—that always arrive in the same order and each last about 25 years. The last of these eras—the fourth turning—was always the most perilous, a period of civic upheaval and national mobilization.
-
-
A little baffled
- De John Coleman en 07-18-23
De: Neil Howe
-
Upheaval
- Turning Points for Nations in Crisis
- De: Jared Diamond
- Narrado por: Henry Strozier
- Duración: 18 h y 44 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
In his earlier best sellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in the final audiobook in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crisis through selective change - a coping mechanism more commonly associated with personal trauma.
-
-
The Urine of the Earth in a Teacup
- De Marian en 05-12-19
De: Jared Diamond
-
Civilization
- The West and the Rest
- De: Niall Ferguson
- Narrado por: Niall Ferguson
- Duración: 13 h y 5 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
The rise to global predominance of Western civilization is the single most important historical phenomenon of the past five hundred years. All over the world, an astonishing proportion of people now work for Western-style companies, study at Western-style universities, vote for Western-style governments, take Western medicines, wear Western clothes, and even work Western hours. Yet six hundred years ago the petty kingdoms of Western Europe seemed unlikely to achieve much more than perpetual internecine warfare. It was Ming China or Ottoman Turkey that had the look of world civilizations.
-
-
Thoughtful analysis of the ascendancy of the West.
- De Patrick en 05-25-13
De: Niall Ferguson
-
The Storm Before the Calm
- America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond
- De: George Friedman
- Narrado por: Bruce Turk
- Duración: 9 h y 16 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
In his riveting new book, noted forecaster and best-selling author George Friedman turns to the future of the United States. Examining the clear cycles through which the United States has developed, upheaved, matured, and solidified, Friedman breaks down the coming years and decades in thrilling detail.
-
-
For the kids, a golden age
- De C. Walker en 03-01-20
De: George Friedman
-
The Square and the Tower
- Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook
- De: Niall Ferguson
- Narrado por: Elliot Hill
- Duración: 17 h y 22 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Most history is hierarchical: it's about emperors, presidents, prime ministers, and field marshals. It's about states, armies, and corporations. It's about orders from on high. Even history "from below" is often about trade unions and workers' parties. But what if that's simply because hierarchical institutions create the archives that historians rely on? What if we are missing the informal, less well documented social networks that are the true sources of power and drivers of change?
-
-
Not his best by a long chalk: Read Steven Pinker.
- De David en 02-05-18
De: Niall Ferguson
-
Wealth, Poverty, and Politics
- An International Perspective
- De: Thomas Sowell
- Narrado por: David Cochran Heath
- Duración: 8 h y 27 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
In Wealth, Poverty, and Politics, Thomas Sowell, one of the foremost conservative public intellectuals in the country, argues that political and ideological struggles have led to dangerous confusion about income inequality in America. Pundits and politically motivated economists trumpet ambiguous statistics and sensational theories while ignoring the true determinant of income inequality: the production of wealth.
-
-
A paradigm shift on the subject of equality
- De Steven Schardein en 10-02-15
De: Thomas Sowell
-
Intellectuals and Society
- De: Thomas Sowell
- Narrado por: Tom Weiner
- Duración: 11 h y 22 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
This is a study of how intellectuals as a class affect modern societies by shaping the climate of opinion in which official policies develop, on issues ranging from economics to law to war and peace. You will hear a withering and clear-eyed critique about (but not for) intellectuals that explores their impact on public opinion, policy, and society at large.
-
-
Biased but good
- De Justin en 05-06-10
De: Thomas Sowell
-
The Mystery of Capital
- Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else
- De: Hernando de Soto
- Narrado por: Bob Souer
- Duración: 6 h y 52 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
"The hour of capitalism's greatest triumph," writes Hernando de Soto, "is, in the eyes of four-fifths of humanity, its hour of crisis." In The Mystery of Capital, the world-famous Peruvian economist takes up one of the most pressing questions the world faces today: Why do some countries succeed at capitalism while others fail?
-
-
Good global perspective on Capitalism
- De Nellie boi en 05-29-21
De: Hernando de Soto
-
Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World
- De: Fareed Zakaria
- Narrado por: Fareed Zakaria
- Duración: 7 h y 24 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Lenin once said, “There are decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen.” This is one of those times when history has sped up. CNN host and best-selling author Fareed Zakaria helps listeners to understand the nature of a post-pandemic world: the political, social, technological, and economic impacts that may take years to unfold. In the form of 10 straightforward “lessons”, covering topics from globalization and threat-preparedness to inequality and technological advancement, Zakaria creates a structure for listeners to begin thinking beyond COVID-19.
-
-
SADLY HOPEFUL
- De Frances J. Freeman en 10-11-20
De: Fareed Zakaria
Reseñas de la Crítica
"Humans spend much effort counting themselves. Always have, always will. Why? To control, conscript, and tax; but, then, also to hold accountable the powerful people who control, conscript, and tax. Andrew Whitby, alert to this duality, instructs and entertains as he brilliantly travels across the census landscape. Literally, a tour de force." (Kenneth Prewitt, Carnegie Professor of Public Affairs, Columbia University, and former director of the US Census Bureau)
"When we hear census, we think of numbers and statistics. But Andrew Whitby shows that the history of the census is an amazingly fascinating and illuminating story, and in The Sum of the People, he tells that story eloquently and persuasively. A real page-turner!" (Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, coauthor of Big Data)
"In The Sum of the People, Andrew Whitby tells a gripping tale of humanity, civilization, and power. If you never imagined that a book about the census and the statisticians who conduct it could be a page-turner, think again. At a time when the need for the census is being challenged amid a tide of online big data, this book is also a deeply thought-provoking read." (Diane Coyle, author of GDP: A Brief But Affectionate History and Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge)