How Our Days Became Numbered

Risk and the Rise of the Statistical Individual

Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Science, Other Sciences, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century
Cover of the book How Our Days Became Numbered by Dan Bouk, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Dan Bouk ISBN: 9780226259208
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: May 18, 2015
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Dan Bouk
ISBN: 9780226259208
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: May 18, 2015
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

Long before the age of "Big Data" or the rise of today's "self-quantifiers," American capitalism embraced "risk"--and proceeded to number our days. Life insurers led the way, developing numerical practices for measuring individuals and groups, predicting their fates, and intervening in their futures. Emanating from the gilded boardrooms of Lower Manhattan and making their way into drawing rooms and tenement apartments across the nation, these practices soon came to change the futures they purported to divine.

How Our Days Became Numbered tells a story of corporate culture remaking American culture--a story of intellectuals and professionals in and around insurance companies who reimagined Americans' lives through numbers and taught ordinary Americans to do the same. Making individuals statistical did not happen easily. Legislative battles raged over the propriety of discriminating by race or of smoothing away the effects of capitalism's fluctuations on individuals. Meanwhile, debates within companies set doctors against actuaries and agents, resulting in elaborate, secretive systems of surveillance and calculation.

Dan Bouk reveals how, in a little over half a century, insurers laid the groundwork for the much-quantified, risk-infused world that we live in today. To understand how the financial world shapes modern bodies, how risk assessments can perpetuate inequalities of race or sex, and how the quantification and claims of risk on each of us continue to grow, we must take seriously the history of those who view our lives as a series of probabilities to be managed.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Long before the age of "Big Data" or the rise of today's "self-quantifiers," American capitalism embraced "risk"--and proceeded to number our days. Life insurers led the way, developing numerical practices for measuring individuals and groups, predicting their fates, and intervening in their futures. Emanating from the gilded boardrooms of Lower Manhattan and making their way into drawing rooms and tenement apartments across the nation, these practices soon came to change the futures they purported to divine.

How Our Days Became Numbered tells a story of corporate culture remaking American culture--a story of intellectuals and professionals in and around insurance companies who reimagined Americans' lives through numbers and taught ordinary Americans to do the same. Making individuals statistical did not happen easily. Legislative battles raged over the propriety of discriminating by race or of smoothing away the effects of capitalism's fluctuations on individuals. Meanwhile, debates within companies set doctors against actuaries and agents, resulting in elaborate, secretive systems of surveillance and calculation.

Dan Bouk reveals how, in a little over half a century, insurers laid the groundwork for the much-quantified, risk-infused world that we live in today. To understand how the financial world shapes modern bodies, how risk assessments can perpetuate inequalities of race or sex, and how the quantification and claims of risk on each of us continue to grow, we must take seriously the history of those who view our lives as a series of probabilities to be managed.

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2014 by Dan Bouk
Cover of the book Everyday Troubles by Dan Bouk
Cover of the book The Work Ethic in Industrial America 1850-1920 by Dan Bouk
Cover of the book Readings in Russian Civilization Rev Ed Vol 2 by Dan Bouk
Cover of the book The Outfit by Dan Bouk
Cover of the book The Young Descartes by Dan Bouk
Cover of the book Panaceia's Daughters by Dan Bouk
Cover of the book Rave On by Dan Bouk
Cover of the book Puppet by Dan Bouk
Cover of the book Political Descent by Dan Bouk
Cover of the book Prehistoric Future by Dan Bouk
Cover of the book Loving Faster than Light by Dan Bouk
Cover of the book Relentless Evolution by Dan Bouk
Cover of the book Forgive and Remember by Dan Bouk
Cover of the book Comics & Media by Dan Bouk
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy