Latrobe’s View of America, 1795–1820: Selections from the Watercolors and Sketches ed. by Edward C. Carter II, et al

Abstract

300 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE probability theory in analyzing the combination of observations in astronomy and geodesy and traces the evolution and eventual syn­ thesis of the methods of “least squares” and “inverse probability.” It goes on to describe the partially successful 19th-century efforts to extend those methods into the social sciences. It concludes with the late-19th-century rise of the “British school” of statistical theory— men such as Francis Galton, Francis Ysidro Edgeworth, Karl Pearson, and George Udny Yule, who decisively extended “the measurement of uncertainty,” especially in studies of heredity. The book ends with Yule’s first recognizably modern social science regression analysis in the closing years of the 19th century. A constant theme is the growing sense, still incomplete by 1900, of the generality of statistical theory. A single statistical technique—least squares, for instance—can find uses in fields as different as studies of the orbits of comets, analyses of the causes of pauperism, and (to take a post-1900, technological example) missile guidance. Our contemporary understanding of that generality carries with it risks for the historian, especially one who, like Stephen Stigler, is also a practicing statistician. It is too easy to see the past as the gradual “discovery” of that general order, and to treat the specific concerns of the forerunners of modern statistics as merely “context”—inter­ esting but incidental backdrop. Stigler is largely successful in avoiding this Whiggish teleology. Even where he is not, his superbly crafted book is informative. It is also clear, lively, and readable, despite the difficulties of some of the material he has to expound. Certainly, it marks a watershed in the historiography of statistics. Donald Mackenzie Dr. Mackenzie is lecturer in sociology at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of Statistics in Britain, 1865—1930: The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Edinburgh, 1981). Latrobe’s View ofAmerica, 1795—1820: Selectionsfrom the Watercolors and Sketches. Edited by Edward C. Carter II, John C. Van Horne, and Charles E. Brownell. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press for the Maryland Historical Society, 1985. Pp. xxi + 400; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $35.00. In 1806, Benjamin Henry Latrobe made a long entry into his jour­ nal, musing at length on what he humbly perceived to be his minimal talents, all the more remarkable to him in light of the considerable renown he was already enjoying, concluding: “For I am utterly at a loss to comprehend how, as I never stuck to anything, any thing has ever stuck to me.” Anyone familiar with Latrobe will recognize this as an unwonted lapse into humility, but the fact remains that Latrobe did consider himself a mere dilettante, albeit a good one. And just in TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 301 case we should wonder along with Latrobe how indeed anything ever stuck to him, this volume of drawings and watercolors provides the answer: he was, simply put, the most passionate and acute observer of the American scene of his time. Latrobe’s View ofAmerica is series 3 of the massive publication project, The Papers ofBenjamin Henry Latrobe. The first milestone in the project, which began officially in 1970, was reached in 1976, with the publi­ cation of a microfiche edition of The Papers; the following year, the first two volumes of Latrobe’s journals were published as The Virginia Journals, 1795-1798, and in 1980, a third volume of journals was produced, completing series 1. Series 2 consists of two volumes of architectural and engineering drawings. Several volumes containing correspondence and miscellaneous essays and articles by Latrobe make up series 4. The stature of this project has only increased over the years; it remains a scholarly undertaking of impressive scope and vitality, a just and admirable fit with its subject. In the present volume, three very brief essays introduce the draw­ ings, each of which is accorded a full page and is accompanied by a facing page of remarks, including dimensions, media, source, and, in the case of the geographical views, physical coordinates from the Universal Transverse Mercator system. The remarks jilso reproduce pertinent material from Latrobe’s letters, diaries, and published writ­ ings. In purely physical terms, this...