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Summary
Summary
A Business Week , New York Times Business, and USA Today Bestseller
"Ambitious and readable . . . an engaging introduction to the oddsmakers, whom Bernstein regards as true humanists helping to release mankind from the choke holds of superstition and fatalism."
-- The New York Times
"An extraordinarily entertaining and informative book."
-- The Wall Street Journal
"A lively panoramic book . . . Against the Gods sets up an ambitious premise and then delivers on it."
-- Business Week
"Deserves to be, and surely will be, widely read."
-- The Economist
"[A] challenging book, one that may change forever the way people think about the world."
-- Worth
"No one else could have written a book of such central importance with so much charm and excitement."
-- Robert Heilbroner author, The Worldly Philosophers
"With his wonderful knowledge of the history and current manifestations of risk, Peter Bernstein brings us Against the Gods. Nothing like it will come out of the financial world this year or ever. I speak carefully: no one should miss it."
-- John Kenneth Galbraith Professor of Economics Emeritus, Harvard University
In this unique exploration of the role of risk in our society, Peter Bernstein argues that the notion of bringing risk under control is one of the central ideas that distinguishes modern times from the distant past. Against the Gods chronicles the remarkable intellectual adventure that liberated humanity from oracles and soothsayers by means of the powerful tools of risk management that are available to us today.
"An extremely readable history of risk."
-- Barron's
"Fascinating . . . this challenging volume will help you understand the uncertainties that every investor must face."
-- Money
"A singular achievement."
-- Times Literary Supplement
"There's a growing market for savants who can render the recondite intelligibly-witness Stephen Jay Gould (natural history), Oliver Sacks (disease), Richard Dawkins (heredity), James Gleick (physics), Paul Krugman (economics)-and Bernstein would mingle well in their company."
-- The Australian
Author Notes
Peter L. Bernstein graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a degree in economics. After serving as a member of the research staff at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and at the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, Bernstein joined the the Air Force, attaining the rank of captain serving in World War II, and assigned to the Office of Strategic Services.
After the war, Bernstein taught economics for many years as an adjunct professor on the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York. In 1951, after teaching economics at Williams College and spending five years in commercial banking, Bernstein became Chief Executive of a nationally known investment counsel firm He retired in 1973 to launch Peter L. Bernstein, Inc. Bernstein was the first Editor of The Journal of Portfolio Management in 1974,and is now Consulting Editor of the Journal. He served on the Visiting Committee to the Economics Department at Harvard University, as a Trustee and member of the Finance Committee of the College Retirement Equities Fund, and as a Trustee of the Investment Management Workshop sponsored by the Association for Investment Management & Research.
Bernstein is the author of nine books in economics and finance and he has also written articles in professional journals such as The Harvard Business Review and the Financial Analysts Journal, and in the press, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Worth Magazine, and Bloomberg publications. He has contributed to collections of articles published by Perseus and FT Mastering. He is also a lecturer on risk management, asset allocation, portfolio strategy, and market history.
Bernstein has received three major awards from the Association for Investment Management & Research, which include; The Award for Professional Excellence, The Graham & Dodd Award, given annually for the outstanding article in the Financial Analysts Journal for the previous year, and The James R. Vertin Award, recognizing individuals who have produced a body of research notable for its relevance and enduring value to investment professionals.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Risk management, which assumes that future risks can be understood, measured and to some extent predicted, is the focus of this solid, thoroughgoing history. Probability theory, pioneered by 17th-century French mathematicians Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat, has made possible the design of great bridges, electric power utilities and insurance policies. The statistical sampling methods invented by dour Swiss scientist Jacob Bernoulli undergird diverse activities such as the testing of new drugs, stock-picking and wine tasting. Bernstein (Capital Ideas) animates his narrative with a colorful cast of risk-analyzers, including gambling addict Girolamo Cardano, 16th-century Italian physician to the Pope; and John Maynard Keynes, whose concerns over economic uncertainty compelled him to recommend an active, interventionist role for government. Bernstein also traces the development of business forecasting, game theory, insurance and derivatives, and surveys recent advances in risk forecasting made possible through chaos theory and by the development of neural networks. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Bernstein's lively history chronicles a profound transformation in attitudes about the future. How one's fate changed from depending less on capricious outcomes and more on predictable ones forms the backbone of the narrative. His central characters are mathematicians who began pondering the statistics of gambling, or gamblers pondering the risks of gambling: about one sixteenth-century polymath, Girolamo Cardano, Bernstein writes that his "credentials as a gambling addict alone would justify his appearance in the history of risk," and that comment is typical of Bernstein's engaging presentation. Amid his recounting of the insights into probability from Pascal to Keynes, he touches on an array of modern fields in which risk analysis is crucial--insurance, commodities futures, stock markets, and that old standard, gambling. This cornucopia of biographical sketches, mathematical examples, and reflections on the nature of human expectations about the future faces little risk of idling in libraries; patrons of the business section might be keenest to read it. --Gilbert Taylor
Library Journal Review
For several centuries, mathematics has been the language of the exact sciences. Only in the 20th century has mathematics become predominant in other fields, particularly economics and finance. In this book, Bernstein (Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street, LJ 12/91), head of an economic consulting firm, traces the development of probability theory from its beginnings in analyzing games of chance, through its application to statistical theory and insurance, up to its present use in developing investment strategies to control risk. He includes excellent sections on portfolio analysis and on investments in derivatives. Bernstein clearly describes the people, their work, and the events that have revolutionized the thinking on Wall Street. A worthwhile acquisition for business and math collections.Harold D. Shane, Baruch Coll., CUNY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.