The Measure of All Things

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Measure of All Things Book Cover

 Winner of the 2003 Dingle Prize awarded by the British Society for the History of Science to the best general-audience book published in the field of the history of science. From the citation: "This is a marvellous book. The story is compelling and wonderfully told. Alder doesn't compromise his scholarship in spinning the tale."

   Winner of the 2003 Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize awarded by the History of Science Society to the best general-audience book published in the field of the history of science. From the citation: "Alder's new book is extraordinary geodetic soap opera that deftly combines gripping narrative, a vivid sense of place and local culture, and a very human exploration fo the meaning, moral significance, and profound personal costs associated with the Enlightenment's embrace of measurement, precision, and rational standards."

   Co-winner of the 2004 Donald Kagan Prize from The Historical Society for the best book in European history published in 2002-03. From the citation: "Alder's book is deeply empirical in the way the work of historians can and should be. This is a brilliantly written book."

- A New York Times "Notable Book" for 2002

- Cited as a "best book of 2002" by:

The Economist
Discover Magazine
Book Sense
Library Journal
The Sunday Times (London)
The Sunday Telegraph
The Spectator

- A Book Sense top 76 book pick for 2002

- Second place, science-fact book of year, 2004, Buchjournal [Germany], December 2004.

- A Main Selection of Clio, Sweden's "History Book of the Month Club"

To order book:

U.S. paperback edition (published by the Free Press, New York):

 

Amazon.com booksite

U.S. hardcover edition (published by the Free Press, New York):

 

SimonSays.com booksite (The Free Press of New York), available in hardback and audio versions

Amazon.com booksite

Barnes&Noble.com booksite

U.K. paperback edition

 

Amazon.com booksite

U.K. hardcover edition (published by Time Warner, London):

 

Time Warner Books, U.K.

Amazon.com booksite

French edition: Mesurer le monde - l'incroyable histoire de l'invention du mètre, 1792-1799 (Published by Flammarion, Paris):

 

Amazon.com booksite