Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-213) and index.

1. Contents
2. Acknowledgments viii
3. Introduction: what is probability? Ix
4. Part one: probability 1
5. 1-the idea of randomness
a. Randomness before the theory of probability
b. Early difficulties in developing a theory of randomness
6. 2-the nature of chance
a. Galileo galilei
b. Pierre de fermat and blaise pascal
c. Christiaan huygens
d. Jacob bernoulli
e. Abraham de moivre
7. 3-surprising insights into probability and its uses
a. Thomas bayes and inverse probability
b. Buffon and the needle problem
c. Daniel bernoulli and smallpox
d. Jean le rond d'alembert and the evaluation of risk
e. Leonhard euler and lotteries
8. 4-randomness in a deterministic universe
a. Poisson
9. 5-random processes
a. James clerk maxwell
b. Brownian motion revisited
c. Markov processes
10. 6-probability as a mathematical discipline
a. Theory and practice
11. 7-three applications of the theory of probability
a. Nuclear reactor safety
b. Markov chains and information theory
c. Smallpox in modern historical times
12. Part two: statistics
13. Introduction: the age of information
14. 8-the beginnings of statistics
a. The beginning of statistics
b. Edmund halley
15. 9-data analysis and the problem of precision
16. 10-the birth of modern statistics
a. Karl pearson
b. R.a. Fisher
17. 11-the theory of sampling
a. The problem
b. Walter shewhart and statistical quality control
c. William edwards deming
18. 12-three applications of statistics
a. The birth of epidemiology
b. The u.s. Census
c. Political polling
19. Appendixes
20. Chronology
21. Glossary
22. Further reading, modern books
23. Original sources
24. Internet resources
25. Periodicals, through the mail or on-line
26. Index