| Description |
xviii, 421 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
pt. I. Statistics and labor reform, 1880-1930: centralization and its discontents. Before there were indexes: the "Labor Question" and labor statistics, 1880-1910 ; The cost of living in peace and war: statistics and economic management, 1910-1918 ; Searching for normalcy: cost-of-living statistics and industrial relations in the 1920s -- pt. II. Rationalizing the democratic political order, 1930-1960: cost-of-living statistics in the heart of the New Deal. The nature of revolution: the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the New Deal ; Tracking an elusive home-front "enemy": price indexes and wage adjustment ; Statistics from the bottom up: union research on the cost of living ; Bounded conflict: collective bargaining and the Consumer Price Index in the Cold War -- pt. III. The CPI and the federal government, 1960-2000: a "welfare" index for the welfare state. Accounting for growth: macroeconomic analysis and the transformation of price index theory ; From workers to the welfare state: the Consumer Price Index and the rise of indexation -- Epilogue: governance and economic statistics. |
| Summary |
In this book, Stapleford interweaves economic theory with political history to create a novel account of the quantitative knowledge that underpins much of American political economy. Demonstrating that statistical calculations inevitably require political judgments, he reveals what choices were made in constructing and using cost-of-living statistics and why those choices matter both for our understanding of American history and for contemporary political and economic life. --from publisher description. |
| Subject |
Cost and standard of living -- United States -- History.
|
|
Cost and standard of living. |
|
United States. |
|
History. |
| ISBN |
9780521895019 |
|
0521895014 |
|
9780521719247 paperback |
|
0521719240 paperback |
|
