Customer Reviews

Notable Mathematicians

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This book is everything the Booklist review states: excellent selection of individuals, a number of appendicies that provide valuable cross-tabulation information, and the most thorough time-line of mathematics I have seen (35 pages). It is a respectable reference book for students and the general public with reading skills of grade 9 or higher. The mathematics content is accessible to persons with intermediate algebra or higher.

The unfortunate drawback of this book is that the biographies are in alphabetical order. The publishing company missed a valuable opportunity: if instead published in order of mathematical developments (semi-chronological) with some bridging material, the book could be both an "armchair" reading book for the general public and a textbook for courses in liberal arts mathematics, mathematics history, etc. Given the excellent cross-tabulations in the appendices, an electronic edition would also be highly valuable.

A minor issue with the book is that the biographies have been slightly sanitized so as to be palatable with high school libraries in the U.S. At the same time, the authors struck a balance by being very forthcoming about the lives and fates of persons. For example, the entry on Pythagorous is excellent for a high-school reference book.

This book can be found in public libraries throughout the U.S. and at many high-school and college libraries as well.

Other books to consider:

Victor Katz has published A History of Mathematics: An Introduction (2nd Edition) which is suitable for an upper-division mathematics-major course in math history. Highly recommended to teachers and students researching the development of mathematics.

Tobias Dantzig's Number: The Language of Science which would be better subtitled "the vocabulary of measurement", is accessible to any successful college sophomore. It gives a somewhat chronological account of the human development of number concepts. Highly recommended to anyone interested in number concepts.