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A Concise History of Mathematics: Fourth Revised Edition (Dover Books on Mathematics)

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If you are looking for a book that clearly describes the evolution of mathematics, you don't need to try more, this book is for you.

Struik's book, "A Concise History of Mathematics", is a well documented book with the main contributions, dates, and names of the people involved in the development of mathematics from their ancients origins until the first half of the 20th century.

Struik's style of writing is clear and, how the title of the book says, concise, highlighting the relevant discoveries made in the field and relating them in order to give a better understanding of the subject.

Reading is easy for all people because Struik avoids to use formulas where it is not necessary, focusing more in the works of the great mathematicians and describing them of a comprehensible way.

Another excellent feature of the book is the great bibliography that contains, with a many references to other books not only in English, but in other languages also.

Somebody would hope to find more mathematical demonstrations and more illustrations, but this is not the objective of the book, contents in a single volume of 228 pages are the most important facts of the history of the mathematics, therefore, the relationship between cost and content is excellent.

A Concise History of Mathematics is a classical book, written by a world wide recognized author, of a clear and concise manner.

All people interested in this area of the mathematics must have this book in their shelf.

This is a particularly clear-minded view of the progression of mathematical history. The book serves to convince that understanding math (as possibly opposed to science) requires a knowledge of its history. The great advance of twentieth century mathematics is its achievement of higher levels of abstraction. But without the history this abstraction is just puff. This book leaves off at 1945.

When I was student ( from elementary school to university level ), I was never taught of history of mathematics ( at least in an organized and formalized way,sometimes there were references to singular and surprising anecdote as Gauss child summing up the first 100 natural numbers in few seconds). I think this is a lack ( probably it is not possible to teach everything in the already rich school program ) of the educational system. For this reason , enjoying mathematics ( especially the simplest one ), I was looking for something to explain and describe how the mathematical thinking developped with time. At the same time, I did not have much time, so I thought from the title that this book was the right one for my needs. Although all the history of mathematics from its dawn to about 1950 and written in a short book is something very difficult to realize ( if not impossible ), I very reccomend this beautiful book, where the history of mathematics is well explained in terms of main thinking lines. Furthermore this book is rich of interesting anecdotes and details on personal and accademic relations among the greatest mathematicians of all time.

This book is best suited for readers with a good knowledge of the various fields of mathematics. It does not expound any technical details, but refers to mathematical results with which one should already be acquainted. The author himself was a mathematician who researched the history of mathematics. The result was the material in this book that contains the names of numerous mathematicians and scientists, and their publications with Latin, French, and German titles. Most of the foreign language titles and quotes have English translation in the footnotes.

This is little more than a sketch of the history of mathematics. In broad strokes, it outlines the relationships among mathematicians and some of their texts, but says almost nothing of substance about the content of their work. Each chapter has a short bibliography, but since the last edition was in 1987 (1st ed. 1948), they are of limited value.

In "A Concise History of Mathematics," Dirk J. Struik succinctly surveys the progression of mathematics: its discoveries, breakthroughs, and distinct personalities. If you enjoy the history of mathematics or if you dislike math (it will help infuse a sense of delight in math) you will find this book very useful. This little volume doesn't cover the subject or any prominent feature of mathematics in exhaustive detail, but it is a precise book with research touching on the foremost pioneers, originators, and timelines caught up in the development of mathematics from their earliest genesis until the start of the last century.

Chapters include:

- The beginnings
- The ancient orient
- Greece
- The beginnings of Western Europe
- 17th century
- 18th century
- 19th century
- First half of 20th century
- And more.

Simple to read and it will help elicit more affection for mathematics as it enlightens the reader in a historical outline regarding this essential subject.

Within this outstanding book is:

- A fine bibliography
- Numerous references (English and various languages).
- A few nice illustrations and pictures
- Many of the most significant details of the history of the mathematics.

Frege, Russell and other important figures are only mentioned in passing. Thus I prefer James Nickel's exhaustive and compelling volume on mathematics. I delight in mathematical truths because they reflect theism as the epistemic foundation. Without the infinite ontic ground of theism and without affirming a wellspring who is the foundation for infinite numbers, the non-theist cannot solve the paradox of infinite immaterial numbers within a finite material world. This is not a problem for the person who ascribes a theistic epistemic source whereas he believes in an infinite, immaterial, and eternal being as the infinite source of mathematics. Non-theists use infinite numbers, yet these numbers have no end, hence they do not comport with their worldview. One must presuppose theism to account for infinite numbers.

"A Concise History of Mathematics" is a marvelous fact-filled book, written in a lucid and crisp style.
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I rather enjoyed reading this Dover classic on mathematics.Yet,there were some problems with the book.It's a vast topic,that's condensed into a rather small book.The author,Dirk J. Struik,did a wonderful job explaining the great giants of global historical mathematics.Now,if you're looking for the math geniuses of the twentith century,however,you'll miss them here.There is an excellent bibliograghy and many important basic formulas presented.The sketch portraits and rare photograghs add an insightful picture of the character of these esteemed numerologists.After reading this text,I found myself wanting to research more about their contributions to mathematics.Eventhough,i may be more advanced at understanding higher math concepts.This book presents a clear philosophical foundation,often skipped by math instructors today,because of time considerations. So, this book is the ideal text for any fellow math neophyte,who may cringe at the broad scope of classical mathematics.

I bought the book for a class on history of math, and it covered that topic well. The issue I had was the usage of words only a PHD in English would use. The book lead me to the Internet to find more information about the period that was easier to understand.

If you are searching some book about introduce you in the math World, you can find it in this book.