Rules: A Short History of What We Live by

Rules order almost every aspect of our lives. They set our work hours, dictate how we drive and set the table, tell us whether to offer an extended hand or cheek in greeting, and organize the rites of life, from birth through death. We may chafe under the rules we have, and yearn for ones we don't, yet no culture could do without them. In Rules, historian Lorraine Daston traces their development in the Western tradition and shows how rules have evolved from ancient to modern times. Drawing on a rich trove of examples, including legal treatises, cookbooks, military manuals, traffic regulations, and game handbooks, Daston demonstrates that while the content of rules is dazzlingly diverse, the forms that they take are surprisingly few and long-lived. Daston uncovers three enduring kinds of rules: the algorithms that calculate and measure, the laws that govern, and the models that teach. She illustrates how rules can change--how supple rules stiffen, or vice versa, and how once bothersome regulations become everyday norms. Rules have been devised for almost every imaginable activity and range from meticulous regulations to the laws of nature. Daston probes beneath this variety to investigate when rules work and when they don't, and why some philosophical problems about rules are as ancient as philosophy itself while others are as modern as calculating machines.

About the Author :
Lorraine Daston is director emerita of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin, visiting professor in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, and a permanent fellow at the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study. Her most recent book is Against Nature. Kitty Hendrix is from Carmel, California, and has been a professional actor and singer since childhood. She moved to New York City after college and found jobs singing in concert venues, cabarets, comedy clubs, and recording studios. She also acted in theater productions, originating more than twenty leading roles; appeared in film and television; and was a founding producer of Legacy Stage Ensemble, a theater company dedicated to the exploration of generational and social issues. Recording audiobooks since 2013 at her studio in NYC and working in nearly every genre, Kitty has consistently received excellent reviews for her work from AudioFile magazine and others. In 2018 Kitty was nominated as a finalist for an Audie Award for her narration of Daisy Miller by Henry James. She is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA and Actors' Equity.