Synopses & Reviews
The American standard system of measurement is a unique and odd thing to behold with its esoteric, inconsistent standards: twelve inches in a foot, three feet in a yard, sixteen ounces in a pound, one hundred pennies to the dollar. For something as elemental as counting and estimating the world around us, it seems like a confusing tool to use. So how did we end up with it?
Most of the rest of the world is on the metric system, and for a time in the 1970s America appeared ready to make the switch. Yet it never happened, and the reasons for that get to the root of who we think we are, just as the measurements are woven into the ways we think. John Marciano chronicles the origins of measurement systems, the kaleidoscopic array of standards throughout Europe and the thirteen American colonies, the combination of intellect and circumstance that resulted in the metric system's creation in France in the wake of the French Revolution, and America's stubborn adherence to the hybrid United States Customary System ever since. As much as it is a tale of quarters and tenths, it is a human drama, replete with great inventors, visionary presidents, obsessive activists, and science-loving technocrats.
Anyone who reads this inquisitive, engaging story will never read Robert Frost's line “miles to go before I sleep” or eat a foot-long sub again without wondering, Whatever happened to the metric system?
Review
"Whatever Happened to the Metric System? is about much more than just the metric system. It's an indispensable guide for understanding our world's centuries-long process of inching toward standardization." Wall Street Journal
Review
"National and international politics, treaties, wars — all play a role in seeing the full picture of the development of a system of measurements used by the vast majority of the world's countries. Marciano knits these seemingly disparate threads into a rich narrative." NY Journal of Books
Review
"A lively perspective on globalism as it relates to currency and systems of measurement." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"An intriguing look at why the system failed to take hold here...Marciano's narrative provides an overview of measurement in all its manifold forms, including currency, clock and calendar. Each chapter is broken up into easy-to-absorb sections that bring fluidity and logic to a complex tale. Weighty stuff, but the gifted Marciano makes light work of it." BookPage
Review
"Marciano's often irreverent descriptions of many of the players in the effort to establish systems for distance, length, volume, weight, and temperature is both interesting and troubling." Library Journal
Synopsis
The system of measurement for most of the world is the metric system, and for a time in the 1970s the United States appeared ready to switch from American standard measurement. The reasons it never happened get to the root of who we think we are, just as American measurements are woven into the ways we think. John Marciano chronicles the origins of measurement systems, the kaleidoscopic array of standards throughout Europe and the thirteen American colonies, the combination of intellect and circumstance that resulted in the metric system's creation in France in the wake of the French Revolution, and America's stubborn adherence to the hybrid United States Customary System ever since. As much as "Whatever Happened to the Metric System?" is a tale of quarters and tenths, it is a human drama, replete with great inventors, visionary presidents, obsessive activists, and science-loving technocrats.
Anyone who reads this inquisitive, engaging story will never read Robert Frost's line miles to go before I sleep or eat a foot-long sub again without wondering, Whatever happened to the metric system?"
Synopsis
The American standard system of measure is odd, unintuitive, and seemingly inconsistent: How did we arrive at twelve inches to a foot, three feet to a yard, let alone 1,760 yards to a mile? And why haven't we ever gone back to streamline it?
The rest of the world is on the metric system, and America's flirtation with it goes back to the founding days of the republic. When Gerald Ford signed the Metric Bill, America finally prepared to give up its feet and pounds. So what happened? The history of why America never went metric gets to the root question of our place in the world: both how we measure it and who we are within it.
This story is about far more than marks on a ruler: it encompasses the aftermath of wars (Napoleonic, Civil, and World), revolutions (American, French, Industrial), and the meaning (cultural, economic, social) of how we choose to divide up the world. Read this book and you'll never again read the Frost line "miles to go before I sleep," or eat a footlong sub, without wondering: Whatever happened to the metric system?
Synopsis
A witty, far-ranging history of how humans learned measure the world--and a spirited defense of maligned US standard system.
About the Author
John Bemelmans Marciano is the author and illustrator of many books, including the distinctive reference titles Anonyponymous and Toponymity, as well as the childrens books Madeline at the White House (a New York Times bestseller), Madeline and the Cats of Rome, and Harolds Tail. A word and math aficionado, he lives in Brooklyn with his wife, daughter, and two cats.