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Technology and Culture 45.2 (2004) 438-439



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Measure for Measure: The Story of Imperial, Metric, and Other Units. By Alex Hebra. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. Pp. xiv+215. $24.95.

This book purports to be "the story of imperial, metric, and other units." It is, unfortunately, less a story and more a shopping list of various systems of measurement that have occupied civilizations at different times. According to the dust jacket, Alex Hebra is a research and development engineering consultant. Units of measurement are therefore a fundamental part of his vocation. The purpose of his book, I think, is to try and provide a popular account. It is written for the layperson with some knowledge of mathematics, which can be a problem. Measure for Measure does not strike a balance between popular and technical, and at times tends to dissolve into a geometry textbook.

In a sense, only someone not immersed in historiography could have written a book like this, since Hebra is clearly unaware of the abundant literature that now exists on the history of standards. This enables him to boldly explore systems of measurement from the ancient world to the modern in just two hundred short pages. Throughout, there is an inevitable linear logic that highlights the "progress" made during this evolution toward a more perfect system—a significant amount of time is spent on the metric system.

Hebra's political message concerns the need for the United States to take the plunge and go metric. After denouncing the financial arguments against conversion, he pleads for a renaissance in the American spirit: "[O]ur metric conversion problems boil down to whether we have the stamina and courage to follow in the traditions of twentieth-century American technological achievements. If some of this pioneering spirit is still with us, a worldwide system of weights and measures will someday take foot quite naturally and without much ado" (p. 194). In light of the recent fiasco over French/freedom fries, this seems a long way off. If you are looking for a contextual account of the history of units, this is not the book for you. But if you are looking for a reference book on various systems of measurement [End Page 438] that have existed throughout history it provides a useful starting point.


Dr. Ashworth teaches in the School of History at the University of Liverpool. His book Customs and Excise: Trade, Production, and Consumption in England, 1640-1845 was recently published by Oxford University Press.
Permission to reprint a review published here may be obtained only from the reviewer.


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