Beyond Measure

A revelatory and vibrant story of measurement which will make you look at the world around you anew. ''A wildly ambitious book by a formidably taleneted young writer.'' ROBERT MACFARLANE '' Beyond Measure offers, with much intellectual flair and style, a bracing new history.'' PANKAJ MISHRA ''A fascinating tale of how our modern world came to be.'' PROFESSOR LEWIS DARTNELL , bestselling author of The Knowledge ''The exact value of this book is hard to quantify. Weighty, precise and satisfyingly obsessive, it''s also an absolute pleasure to read.'' SIMON GARFIELD , bestselling author of The Timekeepers and Exactly We measure rainfall and radiation, the depths of space and the emptiness of atoms, calories and steps, happiness and pain. But how did measurement become ubiquitous in modern life? When did humanity first take up scales and rulers, and why does this practice hold authority over so many aspects of our lives? Written with vim and dazzling intelligence, James Vincent provides a fresh and original perspective on human history as he tracks our long search for dependable truths in a chaotic universe. Full of mavericks and visionaries, adventure and the unexpected, Beyond Measure shows that measurement has not only made the world we live in, it has made us too. ''I adored this provactive book.'' SUE PRIDEAUX , author of I Am Dynamite: A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche ''Delightful . . . one of those books that makes us look afresh at the whole of modern civilisation.'' GRAHAM FARMELO , author of The Universe Speaks in Numbers ''A beautiful read and an impressive achievement . . . You will not look at an acre of land, a metric signpost or even a jar of peanut butter in the same way again.'' GAVIN JACKSON , author of Money in One Lesson

Auteur
James Vincent is a journalist and writer from London who has worked and written for numerous publications, including The Independent, the Financial Times, the London Review of Books, Wired, New Statesman and others. He is currently a senior reporter for The Verge. Beyond Measure is his first book. @jjvincent