The Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom

“Wonderful… Each of the seven pillars that Stigler, in his wisdom, has hewn from the past two centuries of statistical thought provides surprising insights.”—Howard Wainer, Science

“This lively account of a radically counter-intuitive past at least encourages us to question big data’s reputation. Never entrust measurement to a monarch—or judgment to a computer.”—Jonathon Keats, New Scientist

“Learning to reason statistically helps to make one a clearer and more logical thinker about important issues in the world. Part of the achievement of this book is that it makes some of this available to the general reader without the necessity of having to delve into more technical aspects of the subject.”—Michael J. Evans, Mathematical Reviews (starred review)

“Statistics has a core set of ideas that touch every aspect of our lives. Stigler has tapped into these and brought them to life.”—Persi Diaconis, Stanford University

“The hardest kind of scientific thinking concerns what’s in a field’s basement—and Stigler has brought a bright flashlight to his subterranean investigations of the ever-more-influential field of statistics.”—Bradley Efron, Stanford University

“Distilled from centuries of statistical research and garnished with wit, this masterfully prepared seven-course food for thought is a real treat for anyone who wants to reason with data, big or small.”—Xiao-Li Meng, Harvard University