Review Essays

Counting and Power

The publication of Alfred W. Crosby's The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250–1600 raises anew the critical issue of Western power in the modern world. These three reviews tackle that issue through analyses of Crosby's book. They are another installment in our periodic publication of multiple reviews of books that address issues of broad disciplinary concern as a means of sparking debate among historians of various times and places. In this case, Crosby continues his now multi-volume quest to understand the success of European imperialism by presenting a striking argument that quantification was the fundamental source of Western imperial power in the late medieval and early modern eras. Distinctive methods of counting and measurement and the unique mindset that they promoted resulted in scientific, navigational, military, and other innovations that led to Western world dominance. He develops this argument in a wide-ranging and provocative argument that itself spans the globe, though it concentrates on developments in Western Europe. Roger Hart, Margaret C. Jacob, and Jack A. Goldstone approach the book and its larger subject from various perspectives. Their reviews combine to create a broad analytical framework for analyzing Crosby's argument and the issue of Western imperialism.