Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement
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From the cubit to the kilogram, the humble inch to the speed of light, measurement is a powerful tool that humans invented to make sense of the world. In this revelatory work of science and social history, James Vincent dives into its hidden world, taking readers from ancient Egypt, where measuring the annual depth of the Nile was an essential task, to the intellectual origins of the metric system in the French Revolution, and from the surprisingly animated rivalry between metric and imperial, to our current age of the “quantified self.” At every turn, Vincent is keenly attuned to the political consequences of measurement, exploring how it has also been used as a tool for oppression and control.
Beyond Measure reveals how measurement is not only deeply entwined with our experience of the world, but also how its history encompasses and shapes the human quest for knowledge.
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“Measurement is a tool that reinforces what we find important in life, what awe think is worth paying attention to. The question, then, of who gets to make those choices is of the utmost importance.”
This book was a struggle for me. At no point did I feel drawn into the history and science of measurement, and normally I'm all about taken-for-granted concept books like this. There's clearly something here, and it's very well researched, it just felt tedious and maybe not what I was looking for in my non-fiction today.
Rather than a discussion of numbers, this book deep dives into the history and meaning behind why we measure things to begin with. I really did appreciate the look at who developed measurements and why, and why we bother measuring things in the first place. It's important to know who's doling out the food according to what measurement, because historical you might be getting screwed and don't realize it.
This exhaustive deep dive, though, was just that for me–exhausting. Maybe this just wasn't the concept book for me, I don't know. Props to the author for the extensive research.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free ecopy in exchange for an honest review.
