Against the gods : the remarkable story of risk / Peter L. Bernstein.

New York : John Wiley & sons, [1996], ©1996.

xi, 383 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references (p. 353-364) and indexes

To 1200: beginnings -- The winds of the Greeks and the role of the dice -- As easy as 1,2,3 -- 1200-1700: a thousand outstanding facts -- The Renaissance gambler -- The French connection -- The remarkable notions of the remarkable notions man -- 1700-1900: measurement unlimited -- Considering the nature of man -- The search for moral certainty -- The supreme law of unreason -- The man with the sprained brain -- Peapods and perils -- The fabric of felicity -- 1900-1960: clouds of vagueness and the demand for precision -- The measure of our ignorance -- The radically distrinct notion -- The man who counted everything except calories -- The strange case of the anonymous stockbroker -- Degrees of belief: exploring uncertainty -- The failure of invariance -- The theory police -- The fantastic system of side bets -- Awaiting the wildness.