The Sum of the People

March 2, 2020
Data scientist Whitby debuts with a timely yet somewhat ponderous history of population counting, ahead of the 2020 census. He traces the practice as far back as the first millennium BCE, when the king of a nomadic warrior tribe in Central Asia asked each of his people to bring him an arrowhead, and notes that the earliest Chinese census may have been connected to efforts to divert the Yellow River into irrigation channels. In 1086 CE, William the Conqueror became one of the first European rulers to create an enumeration process; it included people as well as cows, mills, and plough teams. Despite religious doctrine (some interpreted the Book of Exodus as implying that population counting was “innately sinful”) and fears of forced military conscription, decennial census taking became an established practice by the mid-19th century. Whitby explores the role of the census in Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jews and in the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII. He also engages in thorough and highly technical discussions of statistical methods. General readers may find the level of detail dizzying, but Whitby makes a persuasive case that studying the history of the census can help make the practice more beneficial. Those with a deep interest in the subject will find this comprehensive account rewarding.

March 1, 2020

Economist and data scientist Whitby presents a timely and eye-opening look at the 3,000-year history of census taking from around the globe, how this task can tell the story of the world's people, and where the census might be headed in the future. The year 2020 marks the decennial census that many nations will conduct, including the United States. To show how the census has come to be, and how it developed significant political and economic impact, Whitby shares its history. This includes how the census was once used as a "mechanism for state formation and control" to satisfy the needs of despots, but also utilized by the powerless as a way for minority self-expression and a canvas for protest. It has also been used as a tactic for nation-building and to assert territorial claim. Whitby asserts that the census as we know it today is in jeopardy due to the variety of other methods, including ubiquitous surveillance practices, that have been deployed to identify each citizen. VERDICT An important, accessible, and engaging book that will find a varied audience from readers of political science, history, economics, and national security.--David Miller, Farmville P.L., NC

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2020
Whitby, a data scientist, delivers a shockingly captivating history of the census, from the first enumeration efforts in Ancient China to the recent citizenship question controversy in the United States. Early census data was used by governments to implement taxation, inspiring revolution in colonial America. As countries expanded, the census served to determine political representation and define borders. The question of whom to count erupted in controversy in areas like Israel and Palestine, South Africa, and the United States. Refusal to complete the census survey was sometimes used as a means of protest. British suffragettes boycotted the 1911 census as a political statement; one woman died trying to escape enumerators. Whitby also recounts that census data was occasionally a tool of oppression, as was the case in Nazi-occupied Europe. Technological advancement and an explosion of data collection have weakened the role of the traditional census but Whitby remains hopeful for the future of the modern census. While fans of microhistories will certainly pick up this title, the impending 2020 Census will attract even more readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)