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Rules
A Short History of What We Live By
Series: The Lawrence Stone Lectures
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Check link for latest rating. ( 169 ratings, 29 reviews)
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Rules
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Description
A panoramic history of rules in the Western world.
Rules order almost every aspect of our lives. They set our work hours, dictate how we drive and set the table, tell us whether to offer an extended hand or cheek in greeting, and organise the rites of life, from birth through death. We may chafe under the rules we have, and yearn for ones we don't, yet no culture could do without them. In Rules, historian Lorraine Daston traces their development in the Western tradition and shows how rules have evolved from ancient to modern times. Drawing on a rich trove of examples, including legal treatises, cookbooks, military manuals, traffic regulations, and game handbooks, Daston demonstrates that while the content of rules is dazzlingly diverse, the forms that they take are surprisingly few and long-lived.
Daston uncovers three enduring kinds of rules: the algorithms that calculate and measure, the laws that govern, and the models that teach. She vividly illustrates how rules can changeβhow supple rules stiffen, or vice versa, and how once bothersome regulations become everyday norms. Rules have been devised for almost every imaginable activity and range from meticulous regulations to the laws of nature. Daston probes beneath this variety to investigate when rules work and when they don't, and why some philosophical problems about rules are as ancient as philosophy itself while others are as modern as calculating machines.
Rules offers a wide-angle view on the history of the constraints that guide usβwhether we know it or not.
Winner of the PROSE Award in History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Association of American Publishers
'Fascinating...[Daston] writes with a twinkling wit.' β Timothy Farrington, Wall Street Journal
'In considering a series of historic anecdotes and texts, Daston helps us see rules (and their neighbours, such as laws and regulations) through the concepts of thickness and thinness, paradigms and algorithms, failures (it was nearly impossible to get eighteenth-century Parisians to stop playing ball in the streets), and states of exception...By the end of Daston's book, one feels a sense of clarity about how to think about rules, alongside a gentle sense of despair concerning what kinds of rules to hope for.' β Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker
Series: The Lawrence Stone Lectures
View all-
Rules
A panoramic history of rules in the Western world. Rules order almost every aspect of our lives. They set our work hours, dictate how we drive and set the table, tell us whether to offer an extended hand or cheek in greeting, and organise the rites of life, from birth through death. We may chafe under the rules we have,...Paperback$3499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Rules
A panoramic history of rules in the Western world. Rules order almost every aspect of our lives. They set our work hours, dictate how we drive and set the table, tell us whether to offer an extended hand or cheek in greeting, and organise the rites of life, from birth through death. We may chafe under the rules we have,...Hardback$5799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Time and Power
From the author of the national bestseller The Sleepwalkers, comes a book about how the exercise of power is shaped by different concepts of time. This groundbreaking book presents new perspectives on how the exercise of power is shaped by different notions of time. Acclaimed historian Christopher Clark draws on four key figures from German historyβFriedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Prussia, Frederick...Hardback$7499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Time and Power
One of Times Higher Education's Best Books of 2018 One of the Financial Times' Summer Books of 2019: History This groundbreaking book presents new perspectives on how the exercise of power is shaped by different notions of time. Acclaimed historian Christopher Clark draws on four key figures from German history - Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Prussia, Frederick the Great, Otto von...Paperback$7600Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Magdalena Coline
The courtroom drama that denied the legitimacy of slavery in late medieval Europe. In 1387, a young Muslim woman from North Africa was captured on a galley in the Bay of Naples and brought to Marseille as a slave. For more than ten years, she was held in bondage to a shipwright and privateer named Peire Huguet. Daniel Lord Smail...Hardback$6999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Living I Was Your Plague
From the author of the acclaimed biography Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet, new perspectives on how Luther and others crafted his larger-than-life image. Martin Luther was a controversial figure during his lifetime, eliciting strong emotions in friends and enemies alike, and his outsized persona has left an indelible mark on the world today. Living I Was Your Plague explores how...PaperbackSold Out
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Rules by Lorraine Daston has been praised for its insightful exploration of the concept of rules through history, combining wit and comprehensive research. Acclaimed as intellectually stimulating and ambitiously profound, it engages readers with its clarity and transformative potential. The book is recognized for its engaging narrative and ability to provoke thought on the complex nature and evolution of rules, making it a standout work in intellectual history.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780691254081
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 08 August 2023
Country: United States
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Illustration: 42 b/w illus.
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 133.0mm
Height: 203.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 384
About the Author
Lorraine Daston is director emerita of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin, visiting professor in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, and a permanent fellow at the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study. Her most recent book is Against Nature.
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Rules
A panoramic history of rules in the Western world. Rules order almost every aspect of our lives. They set our work hours, dictate how we drive and set the table, tell us whether to offer an extended hand or cheek in greeting, and organise the rites of life, from birth through death. We may chafe under the rules we have,...Hardback$5799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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