Automotive Holiday Deals Books Holiday Gift Guide Shop Men's Athletic Shoes Learn more nav_sap_plcc_6M_fly_beacon Adele egg_2015 All-New Amazon Fire TV Beauty Deals Martha Stewart American Made Amazon Gift Card Offer minions minions minions Amazon Echo Starting at $84.99 Kindle Black Friday Deals BestoftheYear Shop Now HTL

Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader

The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250-1600

by
Alfred W. Crosby (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Alfred W. Crosby Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Alfred W. Crosby (Author)
24 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0521639903
ISBN-10: 0521639905
Why is ISBN important?
ISBN
This bar-code number lets you verify that you're getting exactly the right version or edition of a book. The 13-digit and 10-digit formats both work.
Scan an ISBN with your phone
Use the Amazon App to scan ISBNs and compare prices.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
$8.56 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
$24.96 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
More Buying Choices
28 New from $10.35 54 Used from $2.02
82 used & new from $2.02
See All Buying Options
Free Two-Day Shipping for College Students with Amazon Student Free%20Two-Day%20Shipping%20for%20College%20Students%20with%20Amazon%20Student

Get Up to 80% Back Rent Textbooks
$24.96 FREE Shipping on orders over $35. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

  • The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250-1600
  • +
  • The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: 50th Anniversary Edition
Total price: $34.12
Buy the selected items together
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
Hero Quick Promo
Holiday Deals in Kindle Books
Save up to 85% on more than 1,000 Kindle Books. These deals are valid until November 30, 2015. Learn more

Product Details

  • Paperback: 262 pages
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press (December 13, 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0521639905
  • ISBN-13: 978-0521639903
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #440,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
clearly and well written, fascinating story
By Willem Noe on November 25, 1998
Format: Paperback
After reading a positive recommendation in The Economist, I read this book twice and greatly enjoyed the rich tapestry of strands that Crosby weaves. With discerning eye and picking essential tendencies he explains how& why Europe surged ahead from the 11/12th century onward (with a nightmare pause in the 14th century) in economic and technological development, to dominate the world for an unprecedented period. He bases his story on many different elements that came to the fore in an increasingly complex and dynamic European society of the 12/13th century. I found his thesis of the increasing European mindset toward quantification altogether very convincing. I also liked how he points out the traces of these developments on our society today. Highly recommendend.
1 Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Part 3 of a Trilogy
By Amazon Customer on March 29, 2007
Format: Paperback
An important consideration when reading this book is to remember that it is the third part of a trilogy, with the first two parts being (1) "The Columbian Exchange" and (2) "Ecological Imperialism." Crosby's case studies in this book on the development of quantitative thinking in Europe are fascinating in and of themselves. But the overall impact of the shift from quanlitative to quantitative thinking in the emergence of Europe as a world power is absolutely critical to the understanding of the world today. I find this concept to be both more compelling and more predictive than the arguments put forth in G. Diamond's "Guns Germs and Steel." By way of example, look at what India, China and other East Asian countries have done with the adoption of quantitative thinking.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
A symbolic system is the key
By Mark S on February 7, 2010
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Crosby uses the metaphor of "striking a match" to describe the event, which combined with quantification, the kindling in Crosby's metaphor, to generate a revolution in the West. The match is visualization: "Visualization and quantification: together they snap the padlock - reality is fettered" (p. 229). As a type of visualization, a symbolic system allowed advancements that were not otherwise possible. In mathematics, accounting and music, having a concise and powerful symbolism freed the mind to range and to create - no longer a prisoner of memory. As Crosby notes: "Because the algebraist could concentrate on the symbols and put aside ... what they represented, he or she could perform unprecedented intellectual feats" (p. 120). Similarly in painting, perspective allowed a new way to manipulate light in order to make more accurate pictures, for the glory of God and man, thus replacing the multiple and spatially incongruous "Nows" in medieval painting with "'exactness and predictability'" (p. 197).

Often Crosby's extended metaphors are annoying without being instructive: "Bruno was executed for heresy in 1600 - to no avail. The cat, already out of the bag was having kittens" (p. 105); "For us today, things exist in space like vegetables in an aspic salad ... the aspic was starting to stiffen" (pp. 170, 172); "The moment had arrived for a trumpet solo, and the only instrument available was a hunting horn... But let us deal first with getting from the hunting horn to the trumpet" (p. 111). It seems as if he's chuckling to himself as he's writing this.Read more ›
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
another piece in the puzzle of how it became a "European world"
By doc peterson VINE VOICE on June 17, 2010
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
The question of how the world became dominated by Europe has been the topic of several excellent books, among them Crosby's The Columbian Exchange and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. Crosby seeks an intellecutal (rather than biological) answer to the question here, which is appropriate given that Europe held at best technological and scientific pairity with India, Asia and the Near East. So what happend? What made Europe different that allowed them to eventually conquor (both figuratively and literally) much of the world?

Crosby argues that Europe made the crucial move from a "qualifying" view of the world (ie. measuring the world in qualifying terms like 'a pinch') to a "quantifying" view of the world (as in precise measurement - ie. 5 gm.) This transition was slow (the book covers some 250 years) and uneven, and certainly would not have happened without the benefit of the advances made in the East (in terms of Hindu-Arabic numerals, algebra, the concept of "zero" and the like) - but it was the Europeans who began to think in greater abstraction, to measure, quantify and thereby gradually have the tools and wherewithal to explore and eventually "conquor" the world (for better or worse.)

At the center of the book are economic motives: time, since recorded history seen in qualifying terms (ie "night" and "day") became carefully organized. To European city-dwellers, time was money.Read more ›
9 Comments Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Evolving Views of Time, Space and other Measures

The way we measure time and space today is significantly different from not that long ago. According to this book, man used to see time as circular and did not break it down into... Read more

Published 25 days ago by bronx book nerd
Five Stars

Great book! Engaging and simple enough that I can get it. Really shines a light on early Europe.

Published 2 months ago by Jordan J Lynn
A fascinating account of how the European interest in quantification...

A fascinating account of how the European interest in quantification added to the development of Europe at a time when some of the older cultures of China, Persia, India were... Read more

Published 4 months ago by Reader_CEM
Five Stars

Excellent research, great read.

Published 7 months ago by Frank Knight
Five Stars

Solid book based on European roots.

Published 7 months ago by Groat
Creeping slowly towards statistical sophistication

How writing music for choral replication came to modern bookkeeping. Historical look at unfolding ability to undergird human effort with numbers.
Not a book for the 1%.

Published 10 months ago by hunter green
An Interesting Book, Heavy On the History of Science, but Provides No...

W. H. Auden once said that we live societies “to which the study of that which can be weighed and measured is a consuming love” – but that hasn’t always been the case. Read more

Published 14 months ago by A Certain Bibliophile
Decent book for the non-specialist

This is not a magisterial book based on years of reading medieval manuscripts. But it would be hard to have expert knowledge of such a span of sources as timekeeping, accounting,... Read more

Published 14 months ago by Jordan Bell
Clarity at last...

For years I've watched James Burke's CONNECTIONS, and Jared Diamond's GUNS GERMS & STEEL. Both the books and the PBS programs talk about what the Western World has done with... Read more

Published 19 months ago by Amazon Customer
Metrology Rules!

One of our most original historians, here Crosby turns his attention to the oft-asked question of why the west rules. Read more

Published 19 months ago by D. McGraw

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more
The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250-1600
This item: The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250-1600
Price: $24.96
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com
Set up a giveaway

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.



Want to discover more products? Check out these pages to see more: beginnings of western science, lindberg, the measure of civilization, philippe de vitry, the harmony of the world by johannes kepler