I love books about history and the subject matter - census - called my name. The information provided was plentiful and provided context about the purpose of the census and its use throughout history. I will re-read as the information was dense.

This was great. I loved the mix of history, politics, and sociology. I learned a lot. The most interesting section was about World War 2 and how censuses were used to find Jews.

A good overview of both the international history of the census but some of the major controversies surrounding counting everyone. Who knew that something as seemly dry as the census was connected to Nazi political control and the Holocaust, the book of Exodus, the idea of the surveillance state, increasing US political partisanship, civil rights struggles in Australia, Icelandic famine, eugenics, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict (the section on the Palestinian census and its role in political activism was fascinating). All this and more was in the book, plus very clear explanations of statistical sampling, why some populations are routinely under-counted, and ways the US census (mandated by the Constitution!) has changed over time. A very accessible and fun book about a fascinating and important topic.

I thought this was a good microhistory, but it didn't really captivate or wow me. I also remember thinking that it jumped around a little too much.

So much of this book went over my head I'm afraid. There was so much going on in the writing that it was really hard to follow most of the time. It's a shame because I really liked the subject matter of the book.

THE SUM OF THE PEOPLE is one of those rare books that encompasses the history of the world yet isn't somehow 3,000 pages long. Whitby traces the development of the census from biblical times into the empires of Rome and Greece, onto the conquest of the British Isles and the expansion of empire overseas, to the period of revolution in France and the United States, through the Industrial Revolution and up to modern day. The book reads like an exquisite and long-winding story, making stops along the routes of history to teach about Mary and Joseph, Ben Franklin, Pocahontas, Thomas Malthus, and so many more. So much more than we realize has gone into the development of something that seems so simple--counting people.

I had some reservations going into this because I wondered how anyone could possibly fill an entire book on the census and make it interesting, but every single point mentioned felt relevant and added to my understanding. As someone who majored in Middle East studies, it made my heart happy that the book starts with examples regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Lebanon's confessional form of governance, situations which both intensely involve the census-taking (or lack thereof) within their borders.

My sole complaint with this book is that the section on the Holocaust seemed to veer into discussions of the violence unnecessarily and it made me uncomfortable because it seemed out of place with a book of this type. But overall, I loved the book a lot!

If you've never heard of Margaret Sanger, google her immediately and/or read this book. If you want to know about the history of birth control, or Thomas Malthus, or South Africa's census after apartheid, read this book!

I tried to give this book 4 stars but my click on the fourth star didn.'t take

Maybe those nice people at Netgalley and Basic Books who sent me a free advance egalley of this book won’t be too happy when I mention this book in the same metaphorical breath as the section of The Week newsmagazine named Boring But Important. I did NOT think the book boring, but the Boring but Important section of the magazine regularly opens a window on stuff (e.g., Net Neutrality legislation) most of us don’t have the time or inclination to pay attention to, but which some people, some time, some where, are or were engaged in a titanic struggle about because the matter is, well, important. In this way, Boring but Important and Sum of the People are similar.

The history of censuses can start a long time ago, because apparently they are mentioned very early on in the Old Testament, and not in a very encouraging manner. In fact, the jealous and arbitrary God of the Old Testament apparently would think nothing of raining all manner of misery down on your sorry head if you conducted a census in a manner that displeased Him. Who knew? I certainly didn’t.

I hang around a church sometimes, and am condemned to attempt awkward conversation at the after-service coffee hour. Some of the other attendees have, unsurprisingly, spent a good deal of time studying the Bible. I asked them about whether the ancient proscription of certain types of censuses loomed large in the minds of the Biblically-inclined today. As I suspected, it does not. In fact, at first, those I asked claimed not to remember that censuses could be considered divine-wrath-generating before stopping, squinting, and saying, “Oh, yeah, there’s that bit in Leviticus…. Or is it Numbers?” However, none of them said that they intended to give this year’s US census a wide berth because of this prohibition.

These discussions were a substantial improvement on the usual coffee-hour conversation, which often consists of evaluations of recent meteorological trends and commentary on the freshness of the snacks.

Later on, the book states quite clearly that the most famous census in the Bible, the one that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, almost certainly did not take place as described in the New Testament and does not match up with the dates of censuses we know from non-Biblical sources.

The author zigzags across space and time to show that censuses often intersect with important places and moments, including present-day Palenstine, Domesday-book era England, Nazi Germany, Gilded Age USA, and elsewhere. At the end, it predicts the likely demise of the traditional once-a-decade census as it becomes, for better or worse, more and more possible than the population of nearly anywhere can be counted at will and in real time, due to the digital tracks we all leave now in the course of living a normal life.

In the strange times we live in now, even censuses can be bones of contention, and the book also addresses the attempts by the administration of Mr Trump to get a question about immigrant status on the census form. The administration’s attempt to do so in time for the 2020 census went down to defeat, but I don’t think we’ve heard the end of census-related controversy. Who knows? Maybe censuses news will someday graduate from Boring But Important to just Important.

Read if you: Want a deep dive into the surprising history of census.

With the 2020 US Census looming, there's no better time to contemplate the reasons for and the history behind censuses. From ancient China, Biblical times, the early days of the US, Nazi Germany, and post-apartheid South Africa, the census has been much more than just a head count of people residing in one place. Andrew Whitby reveals the insightful and yes, horrifying ways censuses have been used throughout history, as well as reasons why people go out of their way to avoid taking it (or are overlooked).

Librarians and booksellers: No, this might not be a high-circulating title or a bestselling title. However--there are probably enough major history nerds in your community that would enjoy tackling this book.

Many thanks to Perseus Books/Basic Books and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Intriguing Book for Census Year. This book is currently scheduled to be released the day before Census Day and does an admirable job of tracing the concept of a census from its ancient origins through to its current uses, implications, and complexities. In that regard, it is very similar to Radley Balko's 2012 work Rise of the Warrior Cop, which traced policing in America in a similar fashion. Eye opening in many respects, head scratching in maybe a couple, this is absolutely a book that should be well read as the world goes into what the author proclaims as possibly the last global census as we currently understand it. Very much recommended.