This extraordinary book provides a journey through the jungle of good and bad graphical devices used to illustrate and obfuscate data. The author's aim is to illustrate how effectively a well-chosen graphic can reveal in an instant the essential truth behind some data whilst a poorly designed representation can conceal an awful truth.

Section I Graphical Failures.- 1 How to Display Data Badly.- 2 Graphical Mysteries.- Section II Graphical Triumphs.- 3 Graphical Answers to Scientific Questions.- 4 Three Graphic Memorials.- 5 A Nobel Graph.- 6 Todai Moto Kurashi.- 7 Picturing an L.A. Bus Schedule.- Section III Graphical Forms.- 8 Humble Pie.- 9 Double Y-Axis Graphs.- 10 Tabular Presentation.- 11 A Rose by Another Name.- 12 Trilinear Plots.- 13 Implicit Graphs.- Section IV Using Graphical Methods.- 14 Measuring Graphicacy.- 15 Graphs in the Presidential Campaign: Why Weren’t They Used More Broadly?.- 16 Visual Aids When Comparing an Apple to the Stars.- Section V Improving Graphical Presentations.- 17 Integrating Figures and Text.- 18 Elegance, Grace, Impact, and Graphical Displays.- 19 Sense-Lining.- 20 Making Readable Overhead Displays.- Finally.- Notes.- References.- Credits.

Illustrates the power of graphics with a tremendous range of examples * Exposes hiding data in the scale, the components of a junk chart, emphasising the trivial and other sorts of sophistry * Contains good rules for bringing elegance, grace and impact to a graphical display * Howard Wainer is a Principal Research Scientist at Educational Testing Service. and was awarded their Senior Scientist Award