Review by Choice Review
This volume's articles deal with historically universal problems of accumulation, preservation, management, interpretation, and dissemination of data. The articles explore how stores of observations were used in the past and contemplate present techniques for retrieving electronic information. Additionally, the articles consider the types of documents in which knowledge was recorded, and evaluate the consequences of "data deluge." Political controversies have arisen over how data is gathered and analyzed, perhaps particularly in those disciplines in which the science is its archive, such as evolutionary genetics and climatology. Ownership of information and access to evidence are perennial dilemmas. Most authors focus on the biological sciences, although astronomy and paleontology are also addressed. Like editor Daston, director of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, the contributors are experienced and well-regarded historians of science. While the text is likely of most interest to researchers or readers of works such as Ann Blair's Too Much to Know (CH, Aug'11, 48-7064), this reviewer can see herself using parts of this collection in a historiography class, together with a textbook such as John Tosh's The Pursuit of History (first edition, CH, Mar'85), now in its sixth edition, or The Houses of History, edited by Anna Green and Kathleen Troup (1999). Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; faculty and professionals. --Amy K. Ackerberg-Hastings, independent scholar
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
