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Men of Mathematics (Touchstone Book) Paperback – October 15, 1986

by E.T. Bell (Author)

69 customer reviews

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From one of the greatest minds in contemporary mathematics, Professor E.T. Bell, comes a witty, accessible, and fascinating look at the beautiful craft and enthralling history of mathematics.

Men of Mathematics provides a rich account of major mathematical milestones, from the geometry of the Greeks through Newton’s calculus, and on to the laws of probability, symbolic logic, and the fourth dimension. Bell breaks down this majestic history of ideas into a series of engrossing biographies of the great mathematicians who made progress possible—and who also led intriguing, complicated, and often surprisingly entertaining lives.

Never pedantic or dense, Bell writes with clarity and simplicity to distill great mathematical concepts into their most understandable forms for the curious everyday reader. Anyone with an interest in math may learn from these rich lessons, an advanced degree or extensive research is never necessary.

Men of Mathematics (Touchstone Book)

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Product Details

Series: Touchstone Book
Paperback: 608 pages
Publisher: Touchstone; Reissue edition (October 15, 1986)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0671628186
ISBN-13: 978-0671628185
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1.6 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > Reference
- #24 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > History
- #94 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Scientists

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Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars

5 star		80%
4 star		9%
3 star		7%
2 star		1%
1 star		3%

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70 of 73 people found the following review helpful

Opinionated, entertaining, informative and riveting

By Mike Christie on May 5, 2000

Format: Paperback

This book has entertained, educated and intrigued two generations of young aspiring mathematicians, as well as people who would never grow up to do research mathematics, but who could see the beauty of number. Bell's style is addictive; he makes every personality come to life--from Galois, brilliant, unlucky and doomed, to Gauss, the "Prince of Mathematicians", to Pascal, mystical and tormented. No one who reads this book can forget, for example, the section entitled "Galois' last night", where, the night before Galois knows he will die, he spends "the fleeting hours feverishly dashing off his last will and testament, writing against time to glean a few of the great things in his teeming mind before the death which he foresaw could overtake him. Time after time he broke off to scribble in the margin 'I have not time; I have not time,' and passed on to the next frantically scrawled outline."
Which is sad, in a way, because it is, according to modern accounts of Galois' life, not accurate. The work Bell is describing was written before his last night, in no such hurry. This has been known for some time, and yet few who know, and who perhaps should know better, will relinquish their affection for this marvellous book. It so captures the enthusiasm one can feel for the beauty and poetry that mathematics brings to the mind that errors of fact are minor flaws.
And the errors are few enough that they really don't matter. In Galois' case, for example, one takes away a deeply etched portrait of an astonishing mind that descended on revolutionary France like a meteorite, and which had about as much chance of being understood.Read more ›

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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful

The definitive mathematical biography of its time

By P. Wung VINE VOICE on January 17, 2001

Format: Paperback

This was the book that piqued my interest in mathematics and the people who does mathematics for a living. Be aware that this book was written in the days when only caucasian western men did mathematics. Asian mathematics weren't considered and women mathematicians were considered to be novelties, not worthy of attention.
This book considered all of the heavy weights in mathematics at the time. From the Greeks onward until those mathematicians considered worthy at the time of Bell's writing. Bell's review of their lives are partly general biography, part assessment of their mathematics, and part psychological studies of why they did what they did. Bell is by no means an objective reporter of the facts. He definitely had his favorites and he had his not so favorites, and he was not shy about letting you know. That is partly why this is such a good book. He puts in his opinions of the foibles and genius of each of the men he is writing about and he puts their genius in a pecking order that he himself created. I found it informative and entertaining. Others may find it bothersome, but this is by far the most complete book of its kind for its day. I recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in mathematics and mathematicians.

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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful

An excellent read, for all people

By A Customer on December 8, 2000

Format: Paperback

This book is a collection of dozens of (short) biographies of mathematicians ranging from the ancient Greeks to leading 19th century mathematicians, like Cantor or Weierstrass. His writing is charming, to say the least, and he puts forth his personal opinion numerous times throughout the text. While the work contains some mathematics, it is at a level simple enough for most people to understand, and in any case, those parts can be skipped through without too much loss in content.
We learn that mathematicians really are like the rest of the world, not nerds or ivory-tower type academicians. The types of people here span the whole gamut, and as their lives were intertwined with historical events of the time, we learn a bit about general history in this book as well.
Bell's writing is also excellent. He keeps the style varied, and as his material spans almost 2500 years, the book is never boring. My personal favorites were the biographies about Galois and Abel, and as their lives were tragically cut short by lots of unlucky circumstances, Bell writes wonderfully about their lives and how mathematics touched them, and in return was blessed by them. It is perhaps Galois' story which can ring true with younger readers - like many teenagers, he was full of ambition, dreams, and hopes, but, well, he had an incredible gift for mathematics and also a whole lot of bad luck - but you'll have to read the book to see for yourself!
This book is definitely not to be missed. Although the book is long, you'll enjoy every minute of it, and also come away wiser about a group of people not many people in this world know much about.

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20 of 25 people found the following review helpful

Contagious passion for mathematics. Beware!

By henrique fleming on July 24, 1998

Format: Paperback

Eric Temple Bell was a fine mathematician on his own. And he could write, also."Men of Mathematics" is a great book and probably a perennial one. I read it first almost 50 years ago, in a Spanish translation. I was immediately fascinated. It obviously influenced me, as, later, on the brink of entering the university, I decided to change from medicine to mathematical physics. The chapters had charming titles: the one that talked about Cayley and Sylvester was called Invariant Twins (Gemelos Invariantes); the one on Galois, "Genius and Tragedy". Now I have the last edition, and the titles are all there. At the time of my first reading the men which impressed me more were Gauss (unforgetable chapter), Riemann (very moving), Galois and, of course, Newton. Recently I read some comments on his chapter on Riemann, considered overly romanticized. Who cares?

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

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Published 1 month ago by Joaquin Perez

Some Good information, but Difficult to Read and Understand

I enjoyed reading about the men who advanced mathematics. Also, my understanding improved as I read about calculus, analytical geometry, non-euclidian geometry, relativity, quantum... Read more

Published 1 month ago by bobbyr

Four Stars

Sent to me son who knows mathematics well. . .

Published 1 month ago by Karol Johnson

Five Stars

An old classic that continues to provide enjoyment to the next generation of mathematics students.

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer

Kindle version is shot full of typos

Great book but the Kindle version is shot full of typos in the formulae - Bell must be spinning in his grave.

Published 2 months ago by 1 * too many

Five Stars

Wonderful history of men in mathematics.

Published 3 months ago by steve

Every person interested in math should read this book sometime

Everyone interested in math should read this book sometime. What a tour of great minds. Unfortunate that the book stopped with Cantor. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Ronald R. Miller

Five Stars

Excellent book if you are really interested in the evolution of our current mathematical concepts.

Published 3 months ago by Paul Murnane

Great history of mathematics

Great history of mathematics. Lacking women, but does do a good job of hitting the highlights for the time it was written. Good for mathematicians and historians alike.

Published 3 months ago by Claire

long tedious sentences, gratuitous "big" words

I gave this one star because zero is not a choice. This is the most poorly written book I have ever read, long tedious sentences, gratuitous "big" words, unreadable and... Read more

Published 5 months ago by JAL

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