Figuring Out the Past: The 3,495 Vital Statistics That Explain World History
Language: English
Published by PublicAffairs, 2020
- Softcover
- Used
Seller: World of Books Inc, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.World of Books Inc
AbeBooks seller since March 23, 2026
Condition: Used - Good
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Add to basketItem description from seller
Discover the world records that define our history and jump headfirst into the past using scientific data that reveals accurate and insightful answers to life's biggest questions. What was history's biggest empire? Or the tallest building of the ancient world? What was the plumbing like in medieval Byzantium? The average wage in the Mughal Empire? Where did scientific writing first emerge? What was the bloodiest ever ritual human sacrifice? We are used to thinking about history in terms of stories. Yet we understand our own world through data: cast arrays of statistics that reveal the workings of our societies. In Figuring Out the Past, radical historians Peter Turchin and Dan Hoyer dive into the numbers that reveal the true shape of the past, drawing on their own Seshat project, a staggeringly ambitious attempt to log every data point that can be gathered for every society that has ever existed. This book does more than tell the story of humanity: it shows you the big picture, by the numbers.…
Seller Inventory # CIN1541762681G
- Title
- Figuring Out the Past: The 3,495 Vital Statistics That Explain World History
- Author
- Peter Turchin
- Publisher
- PublicAffairs
- Publication year
- 2020
- Condition
- Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1541762681
- ISBN 13
- 9781541762688
What was history's biggest empire? Or the tallest building of the ancient world? What was the plumbing like in medieval Byzantium? The average wage in the Mughal Empire? Where did scientific writing first emerge? What was the bloodiest ever ritual human sacrifice?
We are used to thinking about history in terms of stories. Yet we understand our own world through data: cast arrays of statistics that reveal the workings of our societies.
In Figuring Out the Past, radical historians Peter Turchin and Dan Hoyer dive into the numbers that reveal the true shape of the past, drawing on their own Seshat project, a staggeringly ambitious attempt to log every data point that can be gathered for every society that has ever existed. This book does more than tell the story of humanity: it shows you the big picture, by the numbers.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Daniel Hoyer is a historical social-scientist and project manager of Seshat: Global History Databank. His current work uses quantitative and theory-driven methods to identify trends in global history.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
World of Books Inc
Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since March 23, 2026
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