Beyond Measure

Starred review from October 3, 2022
Vincent, a senior reporter at the Verge, debuts with a phenomenal exploration of measurement, the “cornerstone of cognition” that “has not only made the world we live in, it has made us too.” He starts in ancient Egypt, where each year, citizens gauged the depth of the Nile River’s floodwaters to ascertain whether it would be enough to support a plentiful harvest. To do so, the Egyptians developed giant rulers called nilometers that were carved into columns and walls. Elsewhere, Vincent chronicles how the metric system was developed during the French Revolution by the “country’s intellectual elite,” who “thought that the standardisation of weights and measures would eliminate some of the imbalances of feudal life”; argues that the ability to accurately survey land led to the expansion of the U.S.; and makes a fascinating case that measurements can be used for social control, as with the productivity quotas that are imposed on Amazon workers. Amusing anecdotes abound: for centuries, the kilogram was based on the weight of a “particular lump of metal” locked away in a French vault. Vincent’s running of the rule is brisk and constantly surprising as it makes clear that all measurements derive from human choices and are thus inherently fallible. This one shouldn’t be missed.