Before I read this book (for a post-grad degree, why else would you read this), I had no idea that the traditional bell curve in statistics is seriously flawed. This book brought home to me that the supposed be-all and end-all, seemingly untouchable subject of statistics is actually not as powerful as statisticians would have us ignorant innocents believe.
Thanks to the age of the computer, statistics has undergone a major revolution in recent decades, and new theories have continued to be developed on how to read and interpret data, and make inferences and conclusions about significant differences.
The book, thankfully, is easy to read and understand, unlike some uncomprehensible texts that I've plowed through in the past, which only served to confuse me further. "Fundamentals", on the other hand, provides the reader with a sound revising of the basic underlying principles of statistics, the assumptions people have been making for centuries and step-by-step addresses why those assumptions can be flawed in certain circumstances.
The text takes you through easy to understand examples of each applied statistical method and, in addition, offers a basic overview at the end of each chapter of the key points raised (for a quick review just before class, or in case you forgot some previous points).
The book covers a whole host of different statistical methods and in part 2, some alternative strategies of dealing with traditional problems.
All in all, enlightening and fills you with the smug satisfactory feeling of having "one-up" on the statisticians by understanding what it's really all about.
