From One to Zero [Hardcover]

Georges Ifrah (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Product Details

• Hardcover: 503 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (September 30, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670373958
• ISBN-13: 978-0670373956
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.8 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,299,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exellent and Comprehensive History of Counting, July 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: From One to Zero (Hardcover)

The Universal History of Numbers is the most comprehensive book I have come across on the subject by quite some way, and I have probably read over 100. The style of writing makes the book easy to read, and it assumes almost no prior knowledge. Having said that the book is not exactly light bed time reading, there are nearly 650 large pages of quite small writing. It would take a *very* dedicated or interested reader to tackle the book from cover to cover. In my opinion it is best to read the introduction and first one or two chapters, and then to dip into the bits of the book you are particularly interested in. Because of this the book would not be the first I would recomend as an introduction to the subject, try Graham Flegg - Numbers: Their history and meaning, although I would not discourage anyone from buying the book either.

As a resource for Teachers of mathematics the book is excellent. It covers the number system of almost every concievable culture and any teacher with the slightest imagination could use the information in an interesting way in the classroom.

The book covers a lot of information which is not dealt with by the standard english language history of mathematics books, and as such is an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in the subject.

One thing I particularly liked about the book was that it gave various different theories for each question, for instance 'What is the origin of 'our' numerals?', and the reasons for and against each. This was very interesting, as well as helping to explain why historians belive what they believe.

The only criticism of this book I have is to do with its physical contruction. The pages are thin, and so is the cover, so it is very bendy, I would have prefered a hardback edition. However if it keeps the price down.

To sum up this is an excellent book, and an invaluable addition to the collection of anyone with an interest in mathematics, it's history or it's teaching.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! Traces the history of Indian (Hindu) Numerals, October 26, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: From One to Zero (Hardcover)

The best book on history of numbers - ever! It traces the roots of our modern decimal system to India and provides details on how the symbols for all the current digits came from the original devanagari script ...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book ever written on numbers, February 24, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: From One to Zero: A Universal History of Numbers (Mass Market Paperback)

This may be the best book ever written on numbers (covering whatever "numbers" recall to you). An alternative, cross-cultural study that easly substitudes for any book on number theory and history of mathematics. Full of descriptive examples from up to thousands of centuries past and any place you can imagine on earth. The publication company I work for prepared a Turkish edition of this book which is already one of the bestsellers in Turkey only a few weeks after its publication date.
Ozgur Kurtulus ([e-mail])