Adam Tooze's book analyzes the dramatic period from 1900 until the end of World War II, during which innovative approaches were introduced into statistical research. At the turn of the century, practically nowhere else did economic statistics exist in the form in which it is familiar to us today. By 1944, the entire arsenal of modern economic statistics was adopted to manage the economy of the war period. As demonstrated in this book, between the First and Second World Wars, both the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich were at the forefront of innovative statistical developments. New ways of measuring economic parameters appeared, on the one hand, thanks to the modern development of macroeconomic theory, and on the other hand, due to the fact that they were extremely needed by the government. During the Weimar Republic, macroeconomic research was most actively carried out. Under the Nazi regime, these statistical tools were destined to provide the basis for the most daring experiments in economic planning.

While this book examines the history of statistics only on the example of Germany, it provides an opportunity to take a fresh look at the history of modern economics in in general.