Theodore Porter

Theodore M. Porter (born 1953) is a professor who specializes in the history of science in the Department of History at UCLA. He has authored several books, including The Rise of Statistical Thinking, 1820-1900; and Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life, the latter a vast reference for sociology of quantification.^[1][2] His most recent book, published by Princeton University Press in 2018, is Genetics in the Madhouse: The Unknown History of Human Heredity. He graduated from Stanford University with an A.B. in history in 1976 and earned a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1981. In 2008, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[3] In 2023, he received the George Sarton Medal for lifetime achievement from the History of Science Society.^[4]

Theodore Porter
Porter at the 2007 History of Science Society meeting
Born	Theodore M. Porter 1953 (age 70–71)
Nationality	American
Education	Stanford University (AB) Princeton University (PhD)
Occupation	Historian
Awards	George Sarton Medal (2023)

Works

• The Rise of Statistical Thinking (1986)^[5]
• Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (1995)^[6] Porter, Theodore M. (18 August 2020). 2020 pbk edition. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-20841-1.
• The Modern Social Sciences, as editor with Dorothy Ross (2003)^[7]
• Karl Pearson: The Scientific Life in a Statistical Age (2004)^[8]
• Genetics in the Madhouse: The Unknown History of Human Heredity (2018)^[9] Porter, Theodore M. (14 July 2020). 2020 pbk edition. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-20323-2.

External links

• Professor Porter's Home-page

Notes and references

1. E. Popp Berman and D. Hirschman, “The Sociology of Quantification: Where Are We Now?,” Contemp. Sociol., vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 257–266, 2018.
2. Mennicken, A., & Espeland, W. N. (2019). What’s New with Numbers? Sociological Approaches to the Study of Quantification. Annual Review of Sociology, 45(1), 223–245.
3. Faculty Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences — History Archived 2008-07-26 at the Wayback Machine
4. Sepkoski, David (July 20, 2023). "2023 Sarton Medalist: Ted Porter". History of Science Society. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
5. Daston, L. (1987). The Rise of Statistical Thinking, 1820-1900 by Theodore M. Porter. Isis, 78, 272–274.
6. Ravetz, J. R. (1997). In Numbers We Trust | Issues in Science and Technology. Issues in Science and Technology, 13(2). Retrieved from https://issues.org/ravetz/
7. Hands, D. Wade (September 2005). "Book Review: The Cambridge History of Science, Volume 7: The Modern Social Sciences, edited by Theodore M. Porter and Dorothy Ross". Journal of the History of Economic Thought. 27 (3): 355–357. doi:10.1017/S1053837200008877.
8. Turner, Frank M. (2005). "review of Karl Pearson: The Scientific Life in a Statistical Age by Theodore M. Porter". The American Historical Review. 110 (3): 872–873. doi:10.1086/ahr.110.3.872.
9. Carter, N. (2020). Genetics in the madhouse: the unknown history of human heredity. Disability & Society, 35(4), 691–692.