"I cannot think of a better book for teachers of introductory statistics who want a readable and pedagogically sound text to introduce Bayesian statistics."
—Statistics in Medical Research

"[This book] is written in a lucid conversational style, which is so rare in mathematical writings. It does an excellent job of presenting Bayesian statistics as a perfectly reasonable approach to elementary problems in statistics."
—STATS: The Magazine for Students of Statistics, American Statistical Association

"Bolstad offers clear explanations of every concept and method making the book accessible and valuable to undergraduate and graduate students alike."
—Journal of Applied Statistics

This book uniquely covers the topics typically found in an introductory statistics book—but from a Bayesian perspective—giving readers an advantage as they enter fields where statistics is used. This Second Edition provides:

• Extended coverage of Poisson and Gamma distributions

• A calculus refresher appendix and a summary on the use of statistical tables

• Teaching statistics from the Bayesian perspective allows for direct probability statements about parameters, which is much more useful to scientists than the confidence statements allowed by traditional frequentist statistics.
• Bayesian statistics is now more appropriate than ever because computer programs enable the practitioner to work on problems that contain many parameters