A total science

"Drawing on the growing body of work devoted to the history and sociology of statistics, A Total Science offers an in-depth study of the evolution of Italian statistics as a discipline. Jean-Guy Prevost brings together aspects that are often looked at separately, such as theoretical and epistemological foundations and their practical application, along with the formation of a scientific community, its institutions, internal politics, and relations with the state." "Prevost charts how Italian statistics emerged as a full-fledged discipline, giving rise to a network of university chairs, journals, and other institutions. He focuses on episodes such as the creation of the famous Gini coefficient and the statisticians' participation in Italy's war effort and analyses the intellectual project to which most statisticians were committed: creating a quantitative social science. In doing so he reveals the political and ideological use of their work during the Fascist era."--Jacket.