Rating: 
Summary: Great foundation and barrier breaker
Review: This book provides an interesting and entertaining history of the evolution of risk management - although it was more aptly called "winning at games of chance" at the beginning :-) On a serious note, the book's main value to me is sharing it with collegues and friends who shy away from probability and other quantative methods. It has broken the "I-hate-math" barrier for more than one person with whom I have shared a copy (or purchased one as a gift), and I dare say it has helped in their professional advancement. This is particularly true for project managers who get tossed into the profession by chance (yes, that was intended as an oblique pun), and quickly discover that their success depends upon a good understanding of probability in order to correctly estimate work as well as manage project risk. Most of these folks are great at relationship management, but fall into the "I-hate-math" catagory. This book leads them to the math part via a great story with gentle introductory examples of the underlying numbers. In that respect it not only sparks interest in the subject, but provides the self-confidence to wade into the "dreaded subject". Before I go off into a rambling and confusing review of an excellent book, let me end this with two points: (1) it is great reading, regardless of your interest in probability or risk - view it as an historical novel and enjoy it, and (2) it is a gentle introduction to [admittedly] dry material that you will have to get from technical books. I loved it - your mileage may vary.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent overall book on the subject of risk
Review: P. Bernstein's book encompasses many aspects of the vast realm of risk and probability. Most remarkable is the completeness of this historical encyclopedia centering around the evolution of statistics and probabilities. Bernstein went to great length to include a plethora of events each of which was instrumental to the progression of mathmetical forecasting. Famous mathematicians mentioned include Gausse, Bernuli, Newton, Galton... the list goes on and on. The complexity of the calculations dramatically increases along the time line. From simple card games to tabulating mortality rates for insurance purposes, to eventually the application of mathematical finance in forecasting and pricing the derivatives market.The book is well focused for the first half of the book, however, due to the vastness of the information presented, it will probably prove to be an unsuccessful candidate for one sitting.
Rating:
Summary: Too much in love with Keynes
Review: There is a lot of great interest in this book.. I had some prior exposure to some of the matters treated here (for example, I was already knowledgeable about the life and work of Pascal) but even where Bernstein covered matters I know, I found the style fresh and amusing.
In other areas, Bernstein covered matters of which I had been completely ignorant, and I learned a good deal. I plan to pursue some of the sources in his notes.
All that having been said, the book is not perfect. John Maynard Keynes seems to be an idol of Bernstein's, and he is an idol with feet of clay. Take the half-chapter devoted to worship of Keynes with that caution.
Furthermore, Bernstein sometimes retails an aneecdote as if its solid historical fact. He quotes Morgan saying, "prices will fluctuate." That is an aphorism attributed to many financiers over the years -- Baruch most often. These folks are like Yogi Berra, who once DID say,
"I never said half of those things I said!"
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting first half - pity about the math
Review: I found the first half of this book quite well written and packed with interesting anecdotes about almost-famous historical characters. The second half seemed to be mostly of interest to those in financial services rather than a general readership. The book does contain one great annoyance though; a lot of the math is just plain wrong. My own math not being fully up to scratch it took me a while to figure out that I wasn't going crazy, there really were serious errors in Mr. Bernstein's calculations of probability. A version of this book with corrected math and a more general focus would be a very good read.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite Disappointed with the Content
Review: I have to admit that I was attracted to this book by the title. I spent a few nights the read the whole book, and the conclusion was: you'd better go to other books on this subject. I think that the author will give a very outstanding thoery of risks derived from history. Actual: The author just list all the facts and no conclusion was drawn. The whole book could be summarized as: In the progress of history human beings have a lot of method to tame risk and they are becoming more effective with the help of mathematical concept. OK, if you want a history of philosophy or mathematics, you'd better read that book on their particular field. This is no the book for the serious trader who want to learn something about risk. My best advice: Save the risk of buying this item.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: An excellent book. A victory for rational thought. Extremely comprehensive and highly entertaining. This book is the vaccine against "irrational exhuberance". I loved it!
Rating:
Summary: The best books on the history of risk management
Review: This book is in every way the best book that I have read on the history of probability, or better to say history and evolution of risk management. Starting from the very early ages of probability, game logic and thinking to the most current theories and obstacles that we face today in the area of risk management, this book truly explains the initial concepts of risk management. The book is very readable, and it will probably take you couple of hours to read it. It is indeed addictive. Definitely the best book written on such topic.
Rating:
Summary: Strongly recommended to everyone in financial trading
Review: Bravo to Leonard Bernstein for offering us such an outstanding work. I read the book, appreciated a lot and recommend it to everyone in the trading industry.
Rating:
Summary: fun...but...
Review: it must be taken with large sums of salt. Basically the book is based upon and it is about math and history, or it is a history of applied mathmatical probability. Fine and good. But Bernstein is niether a mathmatician nor a historian. Perhaps this is why it is so accessible to most--as most are neither anyway. (In some ways, the blind can lead the blind very well, but not to good effect.) The first obvious error occurs on page 31, where an ancient algebra problem is solved with the wrong answer. Perhaps a typo, but such typos continue. More egregious is Berstein's proof through assertion or simple dismissal. Eg., "Without the concept of zero...a negative number is a logical impossiblity." Perhaps true, but I guess we must take your word for it... The book is really at its best when it is at its worst; or you will learn from this book when someone who really 'knows' tears it apart. As it is, it provokes thought, and although much of it is erroneous, even a fallacious thought is more than most books stir. It is a fun and provacative book, but like most maverick things, it is in itself a big risk. Some of his gambles pay off, others don't. This book needs an expert to tidy it up (and he might just throw it out the window). But in the final analysis, more academics should take risks like PB and risk making mistakes--over-professionalization so favored and demanded by most is making academia a most stale and dessicated place: all know more and more about less and less. PB is not academic (he seems to know a little about a lot) and ironically this gives him the oportunity to experiment and fail, at least with books and ideas, with relative impunity. Or to put it another far more blunt way, a historian or a mathmatician could lose his tenure over authoring this book. I recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: "Quantitative Achievements" of Heroism
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. In it, Bernstein "tells the story of a group of thinkers whose remarkable vision revealed how to put the future at the service of the present. By showing the world how to understand risk, measure it, and weigh its consequences,, they converted risk-taking into one of the prime categories that drives Western society." Bernstein organizes his material within an historical framework: To 1200: Beginnings 1200-1700: A Thousand Outstanding Facts 1700-1900: Measurement Unlimited 1900-1960: Clouds of Vagueness and the Demand for Precision Degrees of Belief: Exploring Uncertainty Bernstein examines hundreds of situations throughout history in which human beings found themselves against the gods and against the odds...some "winning" and others "losing" but all somehow contributing to an understanding of what risk is, of how it can be accurately measured, and of what the consequences of a given risk could be. As Bernstein suggests, many of the most heroic acts in history were undertaken without such understanding. In the final chapter, Bernstein reiterates his central theme: "the quantitative achievements of the heroes we have met shaped trajectory of progress over the past 450 years. In the beginning, medicine, science, finance, business, and even in government, decisions that touch everyone's life are now made in accordance with disciplined procedures that far outperform the seat-of-the-pants methods of the past. Many catastrophic errors of judgment are thus either avoided, or else their consequences are muted." All of us are the beneficiaries of those "quantitative achievements" and of this book in which they are discussed with compelling eloquence.
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