Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-292) and index.
Contents
1. The invention of landed property -- 2. Precise confusion-- 3. Who owned America -- 4. Life, liberty, or what -- 5. Simple arithmetic -- 6. A line drawn in the wilderness -- 7. The French dimension -- 8. Democratic decimals -- 9. The birth of the metric system -- 10. Dombey's luck -- 11. The end of Putnam -- 12. The immaculate grid -- 13. The shape of cities -- 14. Hassler's passion -- 15. The dispossessed -- 16. The limit of enclosure -- 17. Four against ten -- 18. Metric triumphant -- Epilogue : the witness tree.
