Measurement in the human sciences has been since its inception, a challenging, controversial, and often profoundly flawed endeavor. Yet, over the past century, individual and social measures have become integral to our lives and policymaking. Despite their widespread use, controversies and skepticism persist. If anything, the two decades of this nascent century have brought increased scrutiny to the practice of social measurement, its fairness, and the usefulness and credibility of its results as tools that can help us achieve societal well-being (Cai, 2020;Randall, 2021;Sireci & Randall, 2021).Addressing the deep-rooted questions in social measurement demands insight into their origin and the century-long efforts to answer them. While this task is both necessary and daunting, Derek Briggs' Historical and Conceptual Foundations of Measurement in the Human Sciences: Credos and Controversies provides us with an invaluable guide.In his book, Briggs sheds new light on often-unexamined aspects of the history of human measurement, effortlessly weaving together the societal context and demands, philosophical perspectives, and scientific theories that shaped the work of six influential historical figures: Gustav Fechner, Francis Galton, Alfred Binet, Charles Spearman, Louis Thurstone, and Stanley Smith Stevens. As Briggs contends, to understand what we mean when we attempt to measure human attributes, we need to retrace our steps and look into the academic forebearers of our modern psychometric perspectives. We need to understand "the different rationales [they] provided for the claim that latent human attributes are measurable" (p. 15).I wholeheartedly agree with Briggs' diagnosis that our fledging field of psychometrics "lacks a coherent disciplinary focus in the way that the concept and practice of measurement is taught to graduate students" (2021; p. 19) such that "[s]tudents tend to think of 'measurement' as synonymous with the different psychometric models to which they have been introduced…. But the semantics, what the parameters really mean, and the rationale for why they are 'measures,' is missing." (p. 19) This book helps us remedy this situation by delving into the core questions of psychometrics through the lens of some of its founding figures. Briggs offers insightful biographical sketches, shedding light on their diverse journeys to the field of measurement. Each chapter intertwines measurement concepts within the narrative, linking them to recurring themes, while critically examining the impact and application of their contributions.