Includes bibliographical references (p. 353-364) and indexes.

To 1200: beginnings -- The winds of the Greeks and the role of the dice -- As easy as I,II, III -- 1200-1700: a thousand outstanding facts -- The Renaissance gambler -- The French connection -- The remarkable notions of the remarkable notions man -- 1700-1900: measurement unlimited -- Considering the nature of man -- The search for moral certainty -- The supreme law of unreason -- The man with the sprained brain -- Peapods and perils -- The fabric of felicity -- 1900-1960: clouds of vagueness and the demand for precision -- The measure of our ignorance -- The radically distinct notion -- The man who counted everything except calories -- The strange case of the anonymous stockbroker -- Degrees of belief: exploring uncertainty -- The failure of invariance -- The theory police -- The fantastic system of side bets -- Awaiting the wildness.

"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