The formative years of the People's Republic of China were tumultuous to say the least. In the new book Making it Count: Statistics and Statecraft in the Early People's Republic of China (Histories of Economic Life, Book 3) author Arunabh Ghosh examines the ways in which Chinese leaders and officials utilized statistics in order to sculpt and create their new society. This period of change began in 1949, after many years of bloody war. As the government of the most densely populated nation in the world, Chinese leaders were well aware that new methods were required to effect the changes they wanted in their society.

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