Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter L. Bernstein
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy Used: $7.89
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Avg. Customer Rating:  154 reviews
Sales Rank: 1329
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 1.1
ISBN: 0471295639
Dewey Decimal Number: 368
UPC: 723812295630
EAN: 9780471295631
ASIN: 0471295639
Publication Date: August 31, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Very good Softcover book; very light wear to cover; pages are clean and tight
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Amazon.com Review
With the stock market breaking records almost daily, leaving longtime market analysts shaking their heads and revising their forecasts, a study of the concept of risk seems quite timely. Peter Bernstein has written a comprehensive history of man's efforts to understand risk and probability, beginning with early gamblers in ancient Greece, continuing through the 17th-century French mathematicians Pascal and Fermat and up to modern chaos theory. Along the way he demonstrates that understanding risk underlies everything from game theory to bridge-building to winemaking.
Product Description
A Business Week, New York Times Business, and USA Today Bestseller "Ambitious and readable . . . an engaging introduction to the oddsmakers, whom Bernstein regards as true humanists helping to release mankind from the choke holds of superstition and fatalism." ?The New York Times "An extraordinarily entertaining and informative book." ?The Wall Street Journal "A lively panoramic book . . . Against the Gods sets up an ambitious premise and then delivers on it." ?Business Week "Deserves to be, and surely will be, widely read." ?The Economist "[A] challenging book, one that may change forever the way people think about the world." ?Worth "No one else could have written a book of such central importance with so much charm and excitement." ?Robert Heilbroner author, The Worldly Philosophers "With his wonderful knowledge of the history and current manifestations of risk, Peter Bernstein brings us Against the Gods. Nothing like it will come out of the financial world this year or ever. I speak carefully: no one should miss it." ?John Kenneth Galbraith Professor of Economics Emeritus, Harvard University In this unique exploration of the role of risk in our society, Peter Bernstein argues that the notion of bringing risk under control is one of the central ideas that distinguishes modern times from the distant past. Against the Gods chronicles the remarkable intellectual adventure that liberated humanity from oracles and soothsayers by means of the powerful tools of risk management that are available to us today. "An extremely readable history of risk." ?Barron's "Fascinating . . . this challenging volume will help you understand the uncertainties that every investor must face." ?Money "A singular achievement." ?Times Literary Supplement "There's a growing market for savants who can render the recondite intelligibly?witness Stephen Jay Gould (natural history), Oliver Sacks (disease), Richard Dawkins (heredity), James Gleick (physics), Paul Krugman (economics)?and Bernstein would mingle well in their company." ?The Australian
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| Customer Reviews: Read 149 more reviews...
 probability good; Wall St. ridiculous September 22, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I read this when it came out and thought it was pretty good. The first half, about how people figured out how probability worked, was really entertaining. The end, about how the geniuses on Wall St. conquered risk, is so wrong it's hilarious. Bernstein is a victim of what Taleb calls the ludic fallacy -- mistaking well-defined games like craps for the truly unpredictable.
So go read "The Black Swan" or "Fooled by Randomness" instead.
 Great Reward September 14, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
My friends and colleagues have a hard time believing that one of the most entertaining books I have ever read is about risk management and probability. Yet, Peter Bernstein's masterpiece bestseller is just that. By tracing the development of risk through the ages, he sets the personalities of the key innovators against the background of the times, and shows the practicality of what they did and how it changed the way we look at the world.
Most of my favorite mathematicians are profiled here, in witty and digestible bites of prose that often read more like a novel than a business book. The chapter titles themselves bear witness to the delightful style of the author: The Man with the Sprained Brain, The Measure of Our Ignorance and The Fantastic System of Side Bets are just a few examples. The segues between chapters and sections are also very well-done - creating a bit of suspense and making this quite a page-turner.
With apologies for seeming trite, there is a high probability, at little risk, of reaping a great reward from the story told by Mr. Berstein.
Excellent overview of the history of financial risk management September 12, 2008
Against The Gods is a popular account of the history of financial risk management. The author takes us through a journey of discovery spanning almost a thousand years, from the introduction of Arabic numerals and the concept of zero, to the most sophisticated derivative instruments of modern finance. At each point in history when a great leap forward was made, the personalities involved are introduced, and the advances they are credited with are explained. All throughout, mankind's age-old struggle to measure and control uncertainty is seen to stumble time and again against the same, seemingly insurmountable problem: There is no guarantee that what happened in the past will continue to happen in the future.
The book is highly recommended for anyone seeking to understand the origins of modern risk management and what the concept of risk really means.
Today's hero is often tomorrow's blockhead. August 25, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
There are two things that I really liked about this book, and one thing that I didn't. The good things:
1) The author's vast knowledge of the financial markets, from most of a century of experience.
2) His extensive and entertaining history of risk analysis.
The bad thing:
His attempts to explain math concepts that he apparently doesn't understand very well.
His history of risk analysis was a pleasure to read -- from Fibonacci and Cardano, to Markowitz and Sharpe. My favorite, was his coverage of Francis Galton, the man who measured everything.
Above all, the greatest value in this book is that it's packed with the author's knowledge of finance, from 63 years of experience. He's 89 years old now, and appears to still be going strong.
This book is well worth reading.
My favorite quote from the book:
Today's hero is often tomorrow's blockhead.(pg 297)
Very Interesting! August 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Risk Management has always been interesting to me, and learning about the history of it through this book has increased my understanding tremendously. The book is written very well, and it reads very easily for the material being discussed. I was pleasantly surprised as I delved further and further into the book.
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