Customer Reviews:
 Bringing statstics to live November 3, 2003
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
David Salsburg has an amazing knowledge of the historic
developement of statistics during the last century. He presents
the lifes of inumerable contributors to the field and the
unfolding of probabilistic and statistical ideas in an intimate
way. The reader might feel as if he/she were present whenever
anything relevant in statistics had happend. Many of the life
stories were touching and I had the feeling of reading an
epic novel. But the many math terms, explained easily (no formulas,due to the authors wife), or the tragical historic facts of wars
and depressions or the low probability of a person
understanding probability always remaind one of the the funny
reality mixup of mathematics and the physical world.
The stories about the people behind the numbers September 26, 2001
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is an excellent book, which tells the stories and anecdotes behind the statistics. The tales of the long acrimony between Pearson and Fisher is explained (and how this extended to Neyman). The story of the tea tasting episode (form which the title is taken) is revealed. The author wasn't there, but he did speak to someone who was there. If you are interested in statistical analysis, and why we do the analysis that we do, this is a fantastic book. My one problem with the book (and it's a small one) is that the book does not give any mathematics at all. This is to avoid putting off the mathematically timid, but if you aren't interested, and don't know at least a little about, statistics, why would the book interest you?
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