The Calculus Wars: Newton, Leibniz, and the Greatest Mathematical Clash of All Time (Hardcover)

by Jason Socrates Bardi (Author) "Three hundred years ago, history was made when a forgotten English printing press pounded out a few hundred copies of a 348-page work written by..." (more)
Key Phrases: Ernst August, Isaac Newton, Commercium Epistolicum (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Those interested in a lucid, nontechnical account of the battle between Isaac Newton (1642–1727) and German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) over who invented calculus will welcome science writer and debut author Bardi's cautionary tale. As early as 1665, Newton composed a manuscript detailing his method of calculus with examples, but after his unpleasant experience with a 1672 paper on optics that aroused the ire of Robert Hooke, an eminent member of the Royal Society who accused the younger man of plagiarism, Newton became shy of publishing. Between 1672 and 1676, Leibniz independently discovered calculus, using notation that has since become standard. When Leibniz published his results, Newton's allies rushed to discredit Leibniz in what developed, in Bardi's words, into "the greatest intellectual property debate of all time." While a few personal asides might better have been put in the preface, Bardi provides a timeless lesson about human pride as he describes the series of misunderstandings and miscommunications that led to the clash between these two great minds, "perhaps the greatest of their day." Illus. not seen by PW. (May 10)
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Product Description
Now regarded as the bane of many college students’ existence, calculus was one of the most important mathematical innovations of the seventeenth century. But a dispute over its discovery sewed the seeds of discontent between two of the greatest scientific giants of all time — Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

Today Newton and Leibniz are generally considered the twin independent inventors of calculus, and they are both credited with giving mathematics its greatest push forward since the time of the Greeks. Had they known each other under different circumstances, they might have been friends. But in their own lifetimes, the joint glory of calculus was not enough for either and each declared war against the other, openly and in secret.

This long and bitter dispute has been swept under the carpet by historians — perhaps because it reveals Newton and Leibniz in their worst light — but The Calculus Wars tells the full story in narrative form for the first time. This vibrant and gripping scientific potboiler ultimately exposes how these twin mathematical giants were brilliant, proud, at times mad and, in the end, completely human.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (April 23, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560257067
• ISBN-13: 978-1560257066
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #724,748 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Most Interesting Piece of History, October 20, 2006

By	G. Poirier (Orleans, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I loved this book! The author has recounted a fascinating tale about the war that ultimately ensued between Newton and Leibniz as to which one of the two was the first to discover calculus. The author complements his captivating account with highlights of the personal lives of these two individuals, as well as the pertinent politics and daily life in seventeenth and early eighteenth century Europe. The writing style is simple, friendly and quite engaging.

At first, I hesitated to buy this book, despite my love for the subject matter, because of the less than positive early reviews that it was getting. These reviews seemed to dwell mainly on the book's poor editing. Later reviews seemed more forgiving in that regard and, thus, generally more positive. So, I bought the book, read it and absolutely loved it. I do agree that the many editorial errors, although they don't occur on every page, can be rather annoying and even downright confusing at times. Such errors include word repetitions, misprints, wrong verb tenses, occasional missing words, wrong word order, bad punctuation, etc. It is for that reason alone, i.e., poor editing, that I gave it merely four stars because as far as the subject matter, the writing style and the intense interest that this book generates, it is very easily five-star material. This book should be of particular interest to math, science and history buffs alike.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Well-Told, If Narrow, Tale, September 24, 2006

By	Timothy Haugh (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

As Mr. Bardi points out in his book The Calculus Wars, most modern historians of science agree that Sir Isaac Newton (the great English scientist) and Gottfried Leibniz (the great German philosopher) each discovered the calculus independently. It is also generally accepted that, though Newton discovered the calculus many years before Leibniz, Leibniz published first and continued to work on the development of the subject long after Newton had moved on to other pursuits. And therein lies a tale.

The battle between Newton and Leibniz over the "credit" for discovering calculus is one of the great intellectual priority fights in the history of science. It is fascinating for many reasons but first among these must be for the insights it provides into the personalities of two mathematical geniuses: Newton's hypersensitive and introverted nature versus Leibniz's unflinching pursuit of truth as he perceived it in the face of all obstacles. Place on top of this the fact that this fight wasn't picked until they were both in the twilight of their careers, the fact that distance and slow communication made determining what's what more difficult and the fact that, in many ways, this was a reflection of England versus the Continent and you have a war well-joined indeed.

As a physicist and teacher, I was well aware of this conflict but Mr. Bardi has done a very good job of bringing out its details. The only thing I would caution readers of is that Mr. Bardi generally stays very close to his topic. What I mean is that he only provides biographical details that are germane to his story. Being very familiar with these two characters from other reading, I was clear on most of the situations he describes. Those less familiar with the people involved may have more trouble. Still, if Newton and Leibniz are personalities that interest you, this is a lively telling of a pivotal and often lost part of their lives.

22 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting story, but doesn't merit a full book, June 23, 2006

By	Kedar Deshpande (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews

While the story of the invention of calculus is an interesting one, it would be better suited for a long, New Yorker-style article, rather than a full book. Bardi fills out the narrative with interesting, but irrelevent material, such as other projects that Newton and Leibniz developed and studied. While Bardi does a good job of capturing the personalities of Newton and Leibniz, his attempt to fill out the book with historical background information and tangential stories ultimately makes "the calculus war" itself a backburner element. If you're solely interested in the calculus side of the story, this is the wrong book for you. If you're interested in a more holistic study of Newton and Leibniz, this is a good start.

Bardi is successful, however, at reproducing the era. His chronological narrative gives good insight to the way science and scientific societies progressed in the late 17th century. His details about the circulation of letters and correpsondence written by Leibniz and Newton provide solid information about how information traveled in those days. The side stories about Leibniz' time-sapping historical projects (which he did for money) and Newton's boredom with his duties as the head of the British Mint, also demonstrate the difficult lives that even major scientists and thinkers led back in those days.

While the book's writing style is amateurish at times (Bardi likes to use exclamation points and intermittent first-person commentary and opinion, which read like office emails, rather than historical analysis), Bardi does a good job at distilling the information into a text lay-people can understand.

This book was published by a small press and accordingly has numerous typos and some grammatical errors, which were annoying, even if expected.