Now flying off the shelves: The Historical Statistics of the United States

I've seen a couple articles around on the new release of The Historical Statistics of the United States, by Richard Sutch and Susan Carter, two economic historians. Though this is incredibly dorky, I have been meaning to go to the library and take a look at it, because I'm curious what it is like to thumb through it and idly look at the vast tables of numbers about, well, many things. The New York Times, in a background article called "A Book for People Who Love Numbers" here, picks out the challenging, intriguing, and occasionally just plain goofy statistics:

• Fewer than 1 in 10 black children under 5 live with both parents;
• Workers with the highest hourly wages now work the longest hours;
• There are more religious workers (also bartenders, gardeners and authors) than ever recorded;
• There are more shoemakers than at any other time since the Civil War;
• Only half of Americans have access to fluoridated water;
• A growing share of poor people live in the suburbs;
• Philanthropy compared with the gross domestic product has been declining since 1960;
• More Protestants and Jews say they attended religious services within the last week than at any time in the last 50 years;
• The nation is producing record amounts of broccoli;
• It took four days on average to travel between New York and Boston in 1800;
• Attendance at horse-racing tracks peaked in 1976, but rodeo attendance is at an all-time high;
• The proportion of people who have no opinion in presidential approval polls is the lowest in a half century.

Anyway, no article can also resist listing the vital statistics of the book itself: 29 pounds, five volumes, $825, and 5,000 historical statistics, "[up] from 1,235 in the last version, and includes new chapters on slavery, poverty, American Indians, the Confederacy and the nation's territories overseas."

Get your copy now!