This review grows out of a strong conviction on three points: 1. Statistics is fundamentally and primarily concerned with analyzing real data. 2. Data analysis, including inference, is both intellectually challenging and intrinsically interesting. 3. Until recently, most authors of introductory statistics textbooks have managed to do a superb job of concealing from their readers the truth of the first two points. Fortunately, the last decade has seen the arrival of a number of innovative introductory textbooks, so I now find it much more reasonable than in the past to apply high standards in judging an elementary book. In preparing this review, I have tried to present these standards systematically; I use them as an organizing frame for comparing 11 new books (or new editions) with 5 favorites from the past 10 years.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education