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A Little History of Mathematics
A lively, accessible history of mathematics throughout the ages and across the globe
Mathematics is fundamental to our daily lives. Science, computing, economics—all aspects of modern life rely on some kind of maths. But how did our ancestors think about numbers? How did they use mathematics to explain and understand the world around them? Where do numbers even come from?
In this Little History, Snezana Lawrence traces the fascinating history of mathematics, from the Egyptians and Babylonians to Renaissance masters and enigma codebreakers. Like literature, music, or philosophy, mathematics has a rich history of breakthroughs, creativity and experimentation. And its story is a global one. We see Chinese Mathematical Art from 200 BCE, the invention of algebra in Baghdad’s House of Wisdom, and sangaku geometrical theorems at Japanese shrines. Lawrence goes beyond the familiar names of Newton and Pascal, exploring the prominent role women have played in the history of maths, including Emmy Noether and Maryam Mirzakhani.
Mathematics is fundamental to our daily lives. Science, computing, economics—all aspects of modern life rely on some kind of maths. But how did our ancestors think about numbers? How did they use mathematics to explain and understand the world around them? Where do numbers even come from?
In this Little History, Snezana Lawrence traces the fascinating history of mathematics, from the Egyptians and Babylonians to Renaissance masters and enigma codebreakers. Like literature, music, or philosophy, mathematics has a rich history of breakthroughs, creativity and experimentation. And its story is a global one. We see Chinese Mathematical Art from 200 BCE, the invention of algebra in Baghdad’s House of Wisdom, and sangaku geometrical theorems at Japanese shrines. Lawrence goes beyond the familiar names of Newton and Pascal, exploring the prominent role women have played in the history of maths, including Emmy Noether and Maryam Mirzakhani.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published May 13, 2025
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450 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 9, 2025
This is a very enjoyable history of Mathematics in forty chapters. Written for the curious layman with no maths background, this can be read with profit even by those who know some maths, and even by the professional mathematician. The engravings by Kat Flint at the start of each chapter are also delightful.
August 13, 2025
A whirlwind trip through the universe of mathematics. I’m constantly amazed by the abstraction and complexity of the questions under investigation, though I myself have no idea how to make progress on them. I do wish the book had parts dedicated to quick birds eye view explanations of how the proofs of the theorems worked, instead of just saying “through a lot of hard work/a set of fresh eyes/etc” it was figured out. Still greatly fascinating though
September 21, 2025
In one of the first chapters of this book, the story is told about Greeks in the 5th Century BC who consulted the oracle of Delphi to appease the god Apollo after the plague rampaged across the country. The oracle said that "in order to assuage the god, they should double the size of Apollo's altar, an ornate then-foot-high cube. That didn't sound very difficult to do. Double the cube? How hard could it be? (...). This problem, known as the Delian problem, 'rested on how to find the cube root of 2, and was eventually proven - not until the 19th Century - to be an impossible task using only Euclydian tools of geometry available in the fifth century". (p. 31).
This little example illustrates the book well. It's a historical overview of new challenges and solutions in mathematics from the earliest ages to today. Math was definitely not my thing in school, and I only realised that integrals could be used to calculate volumes when on the exam we had to calculate the volume of a flat tyre. I never knew what it was actually used for. In retrospect, a lot of math could have been made more attractive by using some of the challenges in this book. It requires some basic knowledge of math, but not exceptionally so.
The example also demonstrates the weird thing that is relatively unique to mathematics: on a very abstract form, there are many riddles that have no other apparent function or relationship with reality other than keep very smart minds busy for centuries, yet other times, the link with reality becomes obviously clear, and most of our current technology would not be possible without it.
Lawrence takes us step by step through the creative processes of mathematical geniuses who solved ancient and new problems with sometimes completely creative approaches, opening new vistas for other scientists to go even a step further. This includes the amazingly long time it took to have a symbol for zero or for the equation, things which are so obvious today.
Maybe in stark contrast to other sciences, discoveries in math have usually been the result of the stubborn passion of individuals to find solutions for mind-boggling problems. I have used the approach of Kepler in some of my presentations: to make people understand that the earth is revolving around the moon, he forced his audiences to imagine they were looking at the earth from the moon, which gave a totally different perspective on how the planets rotated. This sudden change in perspective clarified everything.
From the early use of numbers to calculating in 24 dimensions, her story is accessible as it is fascinating. Her explanations and examples are sufficiently well explained for non-mathematicians to also enjoy the book, even if many will have trouble understanding how you can work in 4 or 5 dimensions, let alone in 24, but yes, today's math is capable of that. (More on my Blog "The Axe and the Frozen Sea" https://literatuur2.blogspot.com)
This little example illustrates the book well. It's a historical overview of new challenges and solutions in mathematics from the earliest ages to today. Math was definitely not my thing in school, and I only realised that integrals could be used to calculate volumes when on the exam we had to calculate the volume of a flat tyre. I never knew what it was actually used for. In retrospect, a lot of math could have been made more attractive by using some of the challenges in this book. It requires some basic knowledge of math, but not exceptionally so.
The example also demonstrates the weird thing that is relatively unique to mathematics: on a very abstract form, there are many riddles that have no other apparent function or relationship with reality other than keep very smart minds busy for centuries, yet other times, the link with reality becomes obviously clear, and most of our current technology would not be possible without it.
Lawrence takes us step by step through the creative processes of mathematical geniuses who solved ancient and new problems with sometimes completely creative approaches, opening new vistas for other scientists to go even a step further. This includes the amazingly long time it took to have a symbol for zero or for the equation, things which are so obvious today.
Maybe in stark contrast to other sciences, discoveries in math have usually been the result of the stubborn passion of individuals to find solutions for mind-boggling problems. I have used the approach of Kepler in some of my presentations: to make people understand that the earth is revolving around the moon, he forced his audiences to imagine they were looking at the earth from the moon, which gave a totally different perspective on how the planets rotated. This sudden change in perspective clarified everything.
From the early use of numbers to calculating in 24 dimensions, her story is accessible as it is fascinating. Her explanations and examples are sufficiently well explained for non-mathematicians to also enjoy the book, even if many will have trouble understanding how you can work in 4 or 5 dimensions, let alone in 24, but yes, today's math is capable of that. (More on my Blog "The Axe and the Frozen Sea" https://literatuur2.blogspot.com)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews