A Brief History of Statistics in Three and One-Half Chapters: A Review Essay

This article by Stephen Fienberg reviews the last three and one-half centuries of statistics and probability largely through the author's overview and synthesis of seven recent books on the topic. It is an altering and expansion of an earlier paper with the same title published in Historical Methods. We are partly taking this liberty because Historical Methods falls well outside the normal reading range of statisticians. An extension particularly worth noting is the introductory timeline on pages 210 and 211. The original version appeared in Historical Methods (1991 24 124-135; Heldret Publications, 1319 18th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036-1802, copyright 1991). Permission to reprint in revised form has been granted by the Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation. The seven books reviewed here are as follows: