Book Review: Beyond Measure - The Hidden History of Measurement by James Vincent

This is a charming travelogue through the confusing and contradictory world of measurement. It has a similar thesis to Seeing Like A State by James C. Scott and is infinitely easier to read than Inventing Temperature by Hasok Chang

Emanuele Lugli has noted, units of measurement are, for the powerful, ‘sly tools of subjugation’. Each time they’re deployed, they turn the world ‘into a place that continues to make sense as long as the power that legitimises the measurements rests in place’.

One thing that struck me was how often we squash measurements down into something human and usable.

As Kula notes, many historical studies of medieval metrology refer to the ‘primitivism’ and ‘crudity’ of elastic units, but in reality they are well fitted to the needs of the people who used them, embodying the relationship of humans to the land and capturing the necessities of their work.

Americans (wrongly) claim that Fahrenheit feels more natural. It doesn't; they're just used to it. But it does show that we have a bias for familiarity which stops the adoption of new forms and scales.

It dives into the human, social, and religious requirements for measurement. I particularly liked this little aside:

It’s perhaps due to this symbolic potency that the Bible mentions measurement more often than it does charity.

It is also a good compliment to A History of the World in 47 Borders - it shows how measurement lead to conquest, colonialism, and social upheaval.

Rather delightfully, the author goes a little gonzo and reports first-hand from various measurement sites. This isn't a dusty retelling of some encyclopædia article, it is a living exploration of the ritual around measurement. At times it appears that science and religion have an equal fervour for ceremony and obedience.

There is particular ire for the cultish weirdos of the Quantified Self movement, and it loops back to how measurement is a way for the uneasy to impose a sense of order on the world.

I found it a little too credulous about Zuboff's work on surveillance, but that's a minor criticism.

An excellent book for anyone interested in both the philosophy and practicality of measurement.