Makers of Mathematics

by Stuart Hollingdale, Stuart Hollingdale

Fascinating and highly readable, this book recounts the history of mathematics as revealed in the lives and writings of the most distinguished practitioners of the Archimedes, Descartes, Fermat, Pascal, Newton, Leibniz, Euler, Gauss, Hamilton, Einstein, and many more. Author Stuart Hollingdale introduces and explains the roles of these gifted and often colorful figures in the development of mathematics as well as the ways in which their work relates to mathematics as a whole.
Although the emphasis in this absorbing survey is primarily biographical, Hollingdale also discusses major historical themes and explains new ideas and techniques. No specialized mathematical knowledge on the part of the reader is assumed. Superbly informative, this volume offers an accessible, interesting guide to one of the pillars of modern science, and to a supremely important aspect of human culture through the ages.

Genres: Mathematics, Nonfiction, Science, Biography, History

464 pages, Paperback

First published February 6, 1990

About the author

Stuart Havelock (S.H.) Hollingdale

Reviews

[Nilan · Rating 5 out of 5]

read this book as a child - it was in the eltham college library

I loved it

It mesmerised me - taking me through the history of maths through math's protaganists

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely educational and very interesting

[Nadira · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not what I expected. If you are not a mathematician you're going to have a really hard time following the formulas.

[Paul Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story of some taught mathematics and learned to teach others if they choose to learn or apply techniques

[Steve Clark]

Paperback