Reminiscences of a Statistician: The Company I Kept 2008th Edition by Erich L. Lehmann (PDF)

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This relatively nontechnical book is the first account of the history of statistics from the Fisher revolution to the computer revolution. It sketches the careers, and highlights some of the work, of 65 people, most of them statisticians. What gives the book its special character is its emphasis on the author’s interaction with these people and the inclusion of many personal anecdotes. Combined, these portraits provide an amazing fly-on-the-wall view of statistics during the period in question. The stress is on ideas and technical material is held to a minimum. Thus the book is accessible to anyone with at least an elementary background in statistics.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review From the Reviews:”Reminiscences contains stories of people, their lives, their quirks and their science – told with gentle kindness and deep understanding of both the people and their science. It is a wonderful book and I urge everyone with an interest in people, in the development of 20th century science, or in statistics to buy, read and cherish it.” (Howard Wainer, Journal of Educational Measurement, Summer 2009, Vol. 46, No. 2)) “This book is a gem, a must-read. It is a throughly enjoyable mixture of autobiographical and broader historical material, presented as mini-biographies of over 60 mathematicians and statisticians connected to the author….The book contains many anecdotes relating to what we might call career development, implicity emphasizing the role of chance in life. It contains much of interest on academic research, administration, teaching, the writing of papers and textbooks, collaboration, advising, and most prominently, friendship.” (Terry Speed, Short Book Reviews)”The book is, in part, autobiographical. It also provides biographical vignettes of the people Lehmann has known and associated with since his arrival at Berkeley in 1941. … This is the first book that provides insights into the personalities and progress of statistical work of this period … . Currently, the book is a very interesting read with much insight. In the longer term, I predict that it will be a valuable source for historians of the future wanting to write about this period.” (David Bellhouse, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2008 k)“This is an excellent book that can be recommended to anyone with an interest in statistics, the history of statistics, the history of science, and the philosophy of science. It is a personal story of the development of the statistical thinking that today dominates so much of the way we learn about the world, written by one of the main architects of this statistical thinking. … Lehmann gives a detailed exposition of the development of the testing of statistical hypotheses.” (Kjell Doksum, Technometrics, Vol. 51 (4), November, 2009) From the Back Cover This relatively nontechnical book is the first account of the history of statistics from the Fisher revolution to the computer revolution. It sketches the careers, and highlights of some of the work, of 65 people, most of them statisticians. What gives the book its special character is its emphasis on the author’s interaction with these people and the inclusion of many personal anecdotes.Combined, these portraits provide a panoramic view of statistics during the period in question. Included are discussions of such topics as nonparametrics, Bayesian approaches, and data analysis. The stress is on ideas and technical material is held to a minimum. Thus the book is accessible to anyone with at least an elementary background in statistics.Erich L. Lehmann is Professor Emeritus of Statistics at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a member of the American and National Academies, a former Editor of the Annals of Mathematical Statistics, and former President of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. He holds honorary degrees from the University of Chicago and University of Leiden, and was awarded the Wilks and Noether prizes. He is also the author of Testing Statistical Hypotheses, Theory of Point Estimation, and Elements of Large-Sample Theory, all published by Springer. Two more elementary books, Basic Concepts of Probability and Statistics (joint with Hodges) and Nonparametrics have recently been reissued by SIAM and Springer, respectively. About the Author Erich L. Lehmann is Professor Emeritus of Statistics at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a member of the American and National Academies, a former Editor of the Annals of Mathematical Statistics, and President of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. He holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Chicago and Leiden, and was awarded the Wilks and Noether prizes. He is also the author of Testing Statistical Hypotheses, Theory of Point Estimation, and Elements of Large-Sample Theory, all published by Springer. Two more elementary books, Basic Concepts of Probability and Statistics (joint with Hodges) and Nonparametrics have recently been reissued by SIAM and Springer, respectively. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I came across this book after reading an article Lehmann did on nonparametric statistics. I really enjoyed this book because it was a mix of statistical theory and discussion, and also biographical sketches of various statisticians, some of whom I never heard of before. I think it must have been extremely fascinating to have worked in those statistical departments back then!

⭐My wife found this book in Barnes and Nobles and when I said I wanted it she got it for my birthday. I relate to Lehmann’s book in many ways.1. I got my Ph.D. in Statistics from Stanford in 1978 and most of my professors are mentioned in this book as Berkeley and Stanford in addition to being competitive rivals also had joint colloquia.2. I was fortunate to be at Stanford during some of the great days of the growth of statistics. Efron discovery of bootstrap occurred then. Charles Stein had been a Berkeley Professor and still had many connections there.3. Although I didn’t know them as well as ths Stanford faculty I did meet Neyman, Bickel, Lehmann, LeCam, Brillinger and Barlow.4. When studying mathematical statistics Erich Lehmann’s Testing Statistical Hypotheses was manditory. Later I also really enjoyed his nonparametrics book which gave me the clearest picture of the value of nonparametrics and a understanding rank tests. When I studied nonparametrics from Paul Switzer at Stanford we used the text by Hajek and Sidak which in addition to being very theoretical was highly abstract and did not give the insight that I got from Lehmann.5. I always enjoy reading about the history of statistics and by and large this is a book about the history of statistics in its hayday from the personal perspective of one who was at the center of it, contributed greatly to the theory and the graduate education of so many statisticians.The book focusses on Lehmann’s career in statistics through vignettes of his many collaborators and collegues. The list includes Fisher, Egon and Karl Pearson, Herb Robbins, Richar von Mises, Harold Cramer, Jerzy Neyman (of course), Joe Hodges, Evelyn Fix, Julia Robinson, Peter Bickel, Peter Huber, Frank Hampel, John Tukey, C. R. Rao, David Blackwell, Lucien LeCam, Kjeil Doksum, Steve Stigler, Henry Scheffe, F. N. David, Betty Scott, David Freedman, Abraham Wald, Abe Girshick, Lehmann’s wife Julie Shaffer and my Stanford professors, Lincoln Moses, Ingram Olkin, Ted Anderson, Brad Efron and Persi Diaconis. This is not a complete list but it does give the flavor of the richness of Lehmann’s experience.The book is not too technical and can be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in statistics and its history. It is especially valuable to statisticians because it explains the importance of the contributions of the colleagues and collaborators that Lehmann discusses. It also deals with the foundations and provides a very enlightened perspective on the Fisher-Neyman controversy and the frequentist vs Bayesian approaches (including empirical Bayes). His first graduate student Colin Blyth and his last Javier Rojo also have sections in this book.Lehmann has written many great texts and they all are presented with rigor and clarity. This is his first on the history of statistics, his research and the work of his many acquaintances during his career. I found it fascinating and illuminating. Even though I knew some of the stories, Lehmann shed new light on a number of events and statistical philosophy.

⭐Statistics is a relatively new science, with most of its development during the 20th century.It really got rolling in the US when Jerzy Neyman came to Berkeley and initiated its storied department. His first student was Erich Lehmann, a Jewish refugee from Hitler’s Germany. Lehmann is the author of four of the most influential books in mathematical statistics and in the course of his long and illustrious career has known virtually all of the major figures of 20th century statistics. Now, in his 91st year, Lehmann has published a warm and charming memoire describing his life’s work as it intersected with scores of other statisticians.This book is a real page turner that helps to place the formal statistical work of the 20th century into a context and can serve as an update to Stigler’s “History of Statistics before 1900” until someone writes a formal “History of Statistics from 1900-2000.”

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Reminiscences of a Statistician: The Company I Kept 2008th Edition PDF Free Download
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Reminiscences of a Statistician: The Company I Kept 2008th Edition 2008 PDF Free Download
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