BookShared
  • MEMBER AREA    
  • Democracy's Data: The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them

    (By Dan Bouk)

    Book Cover Watermark PDF Icon Read Ebook
    ×
    Size 27 MB (27,086 KB)
    Format PDF
    Downloaded 668 times
    Last checked 14 Hour ago!
    Author Dan Bouk
    “Book Descriptions: From historian Dan Bouk, a lesson in reading between the lines of the U.S. census to uncover the stories behind the data.

    The census isn’t just a data collection process; it’s a ritual, and a tool, of American democracy. Behind every neat grid of numbers is a collage of messy, human stories––you just have to know how to read them.

    In Democracy’s Data and How to Read It, data historian Dan Bouk examines the 1940 U.S. census, uncovering what those numbers both condense and cleverly abstract: a universe of meaning and uncertainty, of cultural negotiation and political struggle. Bouk introduces us to the men and women employed as census-takers, bringing us with them as they go door-to-door, recording the lives of their neighbors. He takes us into the makeshift halls of the Census Bureau, where hundreds of civil servants, not to mention machines, labored with pencil and paper to divide and conquer the nation’s data. And he uses these little points to paint bigger pictures: such as of the ruling hand of white supremacy, the place of queer people in straight systems, and the struggle of ordinary people to be seen by the state as they see themselves.

    The 1940 census is a crucial entry in American history: this controversial dataset enabled the creation of New Deal-era social programs, but also, with the advent of World War II, would be weaponized against many of the citizens whom it was supposed to serve. In our age of quantification, Democracy’s Data and How to Read It teaches us not only how to read between the lines, but gives us a new perspective on the relationship between representation, identity, and governance today.”

    Google Drive Logo DRIVE
    Book 1

    When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day

    ★★★★★

    Garrett M. Graff

    Book 1

    Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World

    ★★★★★

    Henry Grabar

    Book 1

    Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age

    ★★★★★

    Dennis Duncan

    Book 1

    Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants

    ★★★★★

    James Vincent

    Book 1

    Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

    ★★★★★

    Alexandra Lange

    Book 1

    Spying on the South: Travels with Frederick Law Olmsted in a Fractured Land

    ★★★★★

    Tony Horwitz

    Book 1

    Waiting to Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet's Memoir of China's Genocide

    ★★★★★

    Tahir Hamut Izgil

    Book 1

    Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century

    ★★★★★

    J. Bradford DeLong

    Book 1

    How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World

    ★★★★★

    Deb Chachra

    Book 1

    The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet

    ★★★★★

    Jeff Goodell

    Book 1

    Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe

    ★★★★★

    David Maraniss

    Book 1

    Rikers: An Oral History

    ★★★★★

    Graham Rayman

    Book 1

    Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus

    ★★★★★

    David Quammen

    Book 1

    The Sewing Girl's Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America

    ★★★★★

    John Wood Sweet