What do you think?
Rate this book
Spectrum
Mathematics in Historical Context
What would Newton see if he looked out his bedroom window? This book describes the world around the important mathematicians of the past, and explores the complex interaction between mathematics, mathematicians, and society. It takes the reader on a grand tour of history from the ancient Egyptians to the twentieth century to show how mathematicians and mathematics were affected by the outside world, and at the same time how the outside world was affected by mathematics and mathematicians. Part biography, part mathematics, and part history, this book provides the interested layperson the background to understand mathematics and the history of mathematics, and is suitable for supplemental reading in any history of mathematics course.
420 pages, ebook
First published September 1, 2009
1 person is currently reading
18 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 5, 2015
This book is more historical context than it is mathematics. Suzuki goes to great lengths to describe the circumstances in a country or region before explaining what mathematics existed in that context. In many ways, the mathematics is incidental to the coverage of history.
The description of history begins in the ancient world of Egypt and Mesopotamia, where western mathematics first emerged and ends almost literally with the atomic bombs exploding over Japan. Chapter three covers the mathematics of China and India, but is restricted to the years before 1000 CE. The remainder of the book covers the growth and development of mathematics in the western regions of the world, with an appropriate mention of the role of Islamic scholars in keeping the knowledge of the ancient Greek and Egyptian scholars from vanishing forever.
Few people will learn any mathematics from reading this book; the real value is in learning how the historical forces of politics, sociology and culture have influence on the development of mathematics. This also includes the occasional backwards movement where knowledge and proven concepts are deliberately "lost." This most recently happened in the totalitarian states of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under Stalin.
Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission and this review appears on Amazon
The description of history begins in the ancient world of Egypt and Mesopotamia, where western mathematics first emerged and ends almost literally with the atomic bombs exploding over Japan. Chapter three covers the mathematics of China and India, but is restricted to the years before 1000 CE. The remainder of the book covers the growth and development of mathematics in the western regions of the world, with an appropriate mention of the role of Islamic scholars in keeping the knowledge of the ancient Greek and Egyptian scholars from vanishing forever.
Few people will learn any mathematics from reading this book; the real value is in learning how the historical forces of politics, sociology and culture have influence on the development of mathematics. This also includes the occasional backwards movement where knowledge and proven concepts are deliberately "lost." This most recently happened in the totalitarian states of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under Stalin.
Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission and this review appears on Amazon
Displaying 1 of 1 review