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A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication
A comprehensive history of data visualization―its origins, rise, and effects on the ways we think about and solve problems.
With complex information everywhere, graphics have become indispensable to our daily lives. Navigation apps show real-time, interactive traffic data. A color-coded map of exit polls details election balloting down to the county level. Charts communicate stock market trends, government spending, and the dangers of epidemics. A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication tells the story of how graphics left the exclusive confines of scientific research and became ubiquitous. As data visualization spread, it changed the way we think.
Michael Friendly and Howard Wainer take us back to the beginnings of graphic communication in the mid-seventeenth century, when the Dutch cartographer Michael Florent van Langren created the first chart of statistical data, which showed estimates of the distance from Rome to Toledo. By 1786 William Playfair had invented the line graph and bar chart to explain trade imports and exports. In the nineteenth century, the “golden age” of data display, graphics found new uses in tracking disease outbreaks and understanding social issues. Friendly and Wainer make the case that the explosion in graphical communication both reinforced and was advanced by a cognitive visual thinking. Across disciplines, people realized that information could be conveyed more effectively by visual displays than by words or tables of numbers.
Through stories and illustrations, A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication details the 400-year evolution of an intellectual framework that has become essential to both science and society at large.
With complex information everywhere, graphics have become indispensable to our daily lives. Navigation apps show real-time, interactive traffic data. A color-coded map of exit polls details election balloting down to the county level. Charts communicate stock market trends, government spending, and the dangers of epidemics. A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication tells the story of how graphics left the exclusive confines of scientific research and became ubiquitous. As data visualization spread, it changed the way we think.
Michael Friendly and Howard Wainer take us back to the beginnings of graphic communication in the mid-seventeenth century, when the Dutch cartographer Michael Florent van Langren created the first chart of statistical data, which showed estimates of the distance from Rome to Toledo. By 1786 William Playfair had invented the line graph and bar chart to explain trade imports and exports. In the nineteenth century, the “golden age” of data display, graphics found new uses in tracking disease outbreaks and understanding social issues. Friendly and Wainer make the case that the explosion in graphical communication both reinforced and was advanced by a cognitive visual thinking. Across disciplines, people realized that information could be conveyed more effectively by visual displays than by words or tables of numbers.
Through stories and illustrations, A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication details the 400-year evolution of an intellectual framework that has become essential to both science and society at large.
- GenresNonfictionHistoryDesign
320 pages, Hardcover
Published June 8, 2021
9 people are currently reading
227 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 29, 2024
In their book, Michael Friendly and Howard Wainer are making a significant impact akin to Tufte and William Cleveland. It is exceptionally well-written and easy to read, appealing not only to those with no background in data science and statistics but also to anyone who sees graphing today as more than just Python or R code. Explore and appreciate the beauty of data and art with this engaging read.
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July 5, 2021As seen in the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
July 16, 2025
Michael Friendly and Howard Wainer clearly love their subject. A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication isn’t just about graphs — it’s about the stories behind them: the context, the people, the new measurements that made them necessary, and the discoveries they enabled. The authors don’t just show us the end result; they take us through the process that led there, often in a delightful amount of detail.
The structure of the book balances chronology with theme. This keeps the feeling of historical evolution intact, without falling into the trap of a dry timeline. We jump from 17th-century innovators to 20th-century pioneers, always with a clear narrative thread.
What stood out to me most was the variety of examples. While the book is clearly indebted to Edward Tufte's work, it doesn’t recycle his canon. I encountered many visualizations I hadn’t seen before, and even familiar ones were presented with fresh insight. The ideas on how new data, collected with new measurement techniques, often prompt entirely new kinds of charts were particularly eye-opening for me. It’s a reminder that visualization doesn’t just explain data — it also adapts to it.
That idea was so powerful to me that I used it as one of the foundations for my keynote lecture, Graphs can save the world! This book helped me think more deeply about why visualizations matter — not just aesthetically or functionally, but historically and socially.
That said, not every chapter lands equally well. Some sections feel a bit scattered or lightweight, especially when they only briefly touch on developments that deserve more space. The final chapter, Graphs as Poetry, takes a more philosophical turn, but I wasn’t entirely sure what the authors were trying to argue there.
Also worth noting: while the book is visually rich, it’s a shame that most of it is printed in black and white. Some of the visual clarity and impact is lost as a result. And while the authors occasionally offer “reworked” versions of historical charts to show how they could be improved, these redesigns don’t always convince — sometimes the original speaks more eloquently in its own language.
Despite those minor critiques, this is a generous, well-researched, and deeply informative book. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in the intersection of data, history, and design. It’s a reminder that charts are tools, but also more than tools — they are artifacts of human thought, and sometimes, even acts of discovery.
The structure of the book balances chronology with theme. This keeps the feeling of historical evolution intact, without falling into the trap of a dry timeline. We jump from 17th-century innovators to 20th-century pioneers, always with a clear narrative thread.
What stood out to me most was the variety of examples. While the book is clearly indebted to Edward Tufte's work, it doesn’t recycle his canon. I encountered many visualizations I hadn’t seen before, and even familiar ones were presented with fresh insight. The ideas on how new data, collected with new measurement techniques, often prompt entirely new kinds of charts were particularly eye-opening for me. It’s a reminder that visualization doesn’t just explain data — it also adapts to it.
That idea was so powerful to me that I used it as one of the foundations for my keynote lecture, Graphs can save the world! This book helped me think more deeply about why visualizations matter — not just aesthetically or functionally, but historically and socially.
That said, not every chapter lands equally well. Some sections feel a bit scattered or lightweight, especially when they only briefly touch on developments that deserve more space. The final chapter, Graphs as Poetry, takes a more philosophical turn, but I wasn’t entirely sure what the authors were trying to argue there.
Also worth noting: while the book is visually rich, it’s a shame that most of it is printed in black and white. Some of the visual clarity and impact is lost as a result. And while the authors occasionally offer “reworked” versions of historical charts to show how they could be improved, these redesigns don’t always convince — sometimes the original speaks more eloquently in its own language.
Despite those minor critiques, this is a generous, well-researched, and deeply informative book. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in the intersection of data, history, and design. It’s a reminder that charts are tools, but also more than tools — they are artifacts of human thought, and sometimes, even acts of discovery.
August 26, 2021
This was exactly what I wanted right now: lots of great examples and discussions, some of which I already knew (e.g., Minard's graphic of Napoleon's march on Moscow; John Snow's map of the Broad Street Pump), some of which were new to me (e.g., changes in lifespan over different census cohorts in Sweden), and some of which were really lovely (using Minard's style to illustrate the Great Migration). I feel like the book would have benefitted from slightly larger colored plates, but I recognize that publication constraints precluded that. Fortunately, there are lots of associated online resources, which will make it easy to incorporate some of these examples into my teaching.
August 27, 2021
Although suitable for a college course, this history is readable and interesting. It feels a little derivative of Tufte's "Visual Display of Quantitative Information", including the use of many of the key graphical figures. That is perhaps understandable since the authors were Tufte's students, but a greater separation would have been better. I am surprised, given the title, that more effort was not made in color publishing. All of the 20 color plates are grouped together as a text insert. This old-style of presentation makes reading difficult as one must flip between the text and the plates. I do not buy the argument that inclusion of color images is too onerous or expensive. There are beautiful intext color pictures in the books of historian Walter Isaacson, and Schiffer Publishing publishes full color books for collectors at a low price in what are likely small press runs. A second place where color would help is for the URLs that are cited.
October 14, 2022
I read this book to learn more about data visualization for work and pleasure.
I found it to be very educational and it presented a good number of interesting stories around data viz across history.
The book starts to breakdown as it approached the end of the 20th century where it kind of leaves a more straight through narrative and moves into more of a scattershot approach.
I found it to be very educational and it presented a good number of interesting stories around data viz across history.
The book starts to breakdown as it approached the end of the 20th century where it kind of leaves a more straight through narrative and moves into more of a scattershot approach.
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September 20, 20212021-09-14
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews