Remarkable Mathematicians: From Euler to von Neumann (Spectrum Series) [Paperback]

Ioan James (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521520940 | ISBN-13: 978-0521520942 | Publication Date: February 17, 2003

Ioan James introduces and profiles sixty mathematicians from the era when mathematics was freed from its classical origins to develop into its modern form. The subjects, all born between 1700 and 1910, come from a wide range of countries, and all made important contributions to mathematics, through their ideas, their teaching, and their influence. James emphasizes their varied life stories, not the details of their mathematical achievements. The book is organized chronologically into ten chapters, each of which contains biographical sketches of six mathematicians. The men and women James has chosen to portray are representative of the history of mathematics, such that their stories, when read in sequence, convey in human terms something of the way in which mathematics developed. Ioan James is a professor at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford. He is the author of Topological Topics (Cambridge, 1983), Fibrewise Topology (Cambridge, 1989), Introduction to Uniform Spaces (Cambridge, 1990), Topological and Uniform Spaces (Springer-Verlag New York, 1999), and co-author with Michael C. Crabb of Fibrewise Homotopy Theory (Springer-Verlag New York, 1998). James is the former editor of the London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series and volume editor of numerous books. He is the organizer of the Oxford Series of Topology symposia and other conferences, and co-chairman of the Task Force for Mathematical Sciences of Campaign for Oxford.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"For those who plan to teach mathematics, some of these stories would make interesting asides in lectures of any level...Remarkable Mathematicians highlights the importance of personality and human interaction on the development of mathematical theory from the early 18th century to the early 20th century." Math Horizons

Book Description

Ioan James introduces and profiles sixty mathematicians, all born between 1700 and 1910, an era which saw mathematics freed from its classical origins to develop into its modern form. The book is organised chronologically into ten chapters, each of which contains potted life stories of six mathematicians, all of whom made an important contribution to mathematics, through their ideas, their teaching, their influence, and so on. They are sufficiently representative that their stories, when read in sequence, convey in human terms something of the way in which mathematics developed.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (February 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521520940
• ISBN-13: 978-0521520942
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #308,822 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn how mathematicians interacted with each other, May 18, 2003

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Remarkable Mathematicians: From Euler to von Neumann (Spectrum Series) (Paperback)

When reading about the great ones of mathematics, I always enjoy short biographies rather than long ones. If the biographer is required to fill a large section of a book, then they tend to cover more detail than I really care for. While I do enjoy some details about the personal life of a mathematician, anything more than just a few morsels tends to detract from their accomplishments in mathematics.
James strikes the perfect balance in describing the lives of these great historical figures. Each biographical sketch is less than ten pages and he covers their life from birth to death. One valuable thing that he does is give their complete names, which is often omitted from biographies. In fact, despite all of my reading about the people of mathematics, there were some whose full names I had not known until I read this book.
The emphasis is on the lives of the people, and the general concepts of the mathematics that they created, rather than the specifics. No formulas are used in the explanations. Personal and professional interactions are a large part of the life of nearly all mathematicians, and from these biographies, we learn many of the specifics of how contemporaries reacted to each other. As is always the case, the full range of human foibles are displayed as the lives of the mathematicians unfold.
The lives of these sixty mathematicians are described in chronological order according to their birth years. Given that they all began their mathematically productive lives at different ages, this leads to some degree of overlap in both directions. Nevertheless, it is possible to easily trace the development of the major mathematical ideas as they are nurtured from early germs to towering oaks.
Mathematicians are people who find themselves in a social and political environment that they must cope with and sometimes just survive in. In this book, you will learn about sixty of them who made a major contribution, sometimes starting from a point of privilege, and other times only after great struggle. It is well worth reading for pleasure and can also be used as a resource for a course in mathematical history.

Published in the recreational mathematics e-mail newsletter, reprinted with permission.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating!, April 6, 2003

By 

Palle E T Jorgensen "Palle Jorgensen" (Iowa City, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Remarkable Mathematicians: From Euler to von Neumann (Spectrum Series) (Paperback)

Don't miss these captivating tales of the life and the times of mathematicians starting from the period of Tsar Peter the Great of Russia, and right up to recent times, at least up to and including the Cold War. Even if you aren't in math, I think you are likely to be caught up in the drama of the various lives, times, and events. The writing is fast paced and engaging, much like that of Constance Reid's books: "Hilbert", or "Courant"... Over the tumultous historical periods, it has been said that mathematicians have been more likely than others to have been uprooted in the upheavals of history, perhaps because they are concerned with theories and ideas that are more universal. But their lives are still much affected by the times and the events of history: The French Revolution(Galois, Poisson, Fourier...), the Napolionic Wars(Cauchy, Abel...), the period of Bismarck and Nationalism in Europe(Weierstrass, Cantor, Lie...), the Russian Revolution(Alexander, Kolmogorov...), the two World Wars, and the crisis period between WWI and WWII(Banach, Hadamard, Courant, Hilbert...), and the Cold War(von Neumann, Wiener...). The pictures on the cover give you a sample of the profiles in the book: G. Polya, K. Weierstrass, A. N. Kolmogorov, N. Wiener, S. Kovalevskaya, and S.-D. Poisson. Even if you won't get to meet them in person (I was a guest at George Polya's ninetieth birthday!), this book is the next best thing.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good historical account of lives, October 22, 2003

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This review is from: Remarkable Mathematicians: From Euler to von Neumann (Spectrum Series) (Paperback)

The only reason that this book doesn't get 5 stars is because of the fact that not enough emphasis is placed on the achievements of the mathematicians in terms of their mathematics.

However, this does not take away from the fact that is is exteremely well researched, laid out and presented. We get a meaningful insight into how these geniuses (genii?) lived and that fact that they were quite ordinary people with the same levels of hardship (and in some cases even more) as the rest of us. Perhaps an improvement could be made on further mathematicians, both past and present.

Still recommended reading.