(Text Page to) Preface (4).

• Main Authors: Playfair, William, 1759-1823, Marchant, W.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Greenland and Norris 1805
• Subjects: Detroit; Greenland
• Online Access: https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~347475~90114914; https://media.davidrumsey.com/MediaManager/srvr?mediafile=/Size4/RUMSEY~8~1/199/14294008.jpg

Preface to An inquiry into the permanent causes of the decline and fall of powerful and wealthy nations. Text begins: If it is of importance to study by what means a nation may acquire wealth and power, it is not less so to discover by what means wealth and power, when once acquired may be preserved . Sixth and seventh of twelve pages. William Playfair's An inquiry into the permanent causes of the decline and fall of powerful and wealthy nations . , published in London by Greenland and Norris, 1805. First edition; second edition published in 1807. Pagination: [i-iii], iv-xx, [1], 2-301, with [4] fold-out leaves of plates throughout. Includes a preface, table of contents, and historical text, followed by an index. Marbled page edges, now faded. This copy has embossing on title page: Library of the University of Detroit. Plates contain four hand-colored engraved charts showing worldwide economic histories and international relationships, as well as the populations and square miles of nations. The exquisite graphics convey the data through easily comprehensible visuals, which are also stunningly beautiful in pastel hues. William Playfair was the inventor of statistical graphs, and thus a pioneer in infographics and data visualization. "Playfair’s charts can thus be understood as a direct response to the profusion of knowledge and information that we associate with the Enlightenment specifically and with the eighteenth century more generally. This seeming explosion of information—the sheer proliferation of raw data—is, of course, what enables Playfair’s time-series graphs" (Sachs). Full text transcription available via Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16575/16575-h/16575-h.htm http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=jonathan-sachs-17861801-william-playfair-statistical-graphics-and-the-meaning-of-an-event