God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History
This is a daunting book to pick up – it spans almost 1200 pages – but then it is also trying to span the complete history of mathematics. From Euclid to Turing passing Archimedes, Diophantus, Descartes, Newton, Laplace, Fourier, Gauss, Cauchy, Boole, Riemann, Weierstrass, Dedekind, Cantor, Lebesgue and Gödel.
Showcasing excerpts from thirty-one of the most important works in the history of mathematics (four of which have been translated into English for the very first time) this book is a celebration of the mathematicians who helped move us forward in our understanding of the world and who paved the way for our current age of science and technology. So opens the introduction and sets the high standard which the book endeavours to keep to.
The idea of the book is very simple – explain a little about the mathematician, reprint his work with additional commentary and footnotes to give the reader every chance of enlightenment.
This is a very worthy book and I’m keen to have the time to read further – as one of the students in the first GCSE cohort I’m aware that much geometry passed me by as a child. My time at university never entirely clarified the point of Fourier transforms – perhaps my understanding can be completed now. I rather suspect I’ll need to read this book with a pencil and paper at my side, to try ideas – so that I can follow in the footsteps of giants and trace the history as I read along.
No mathematics library would be complete without the texts of the great mathematicians who have shaped the face of mathematics – this is an excellent way of acquiring so many texts in one volume.
This may well be the best 1200 pages for today’s mathematicians.
Peter Hall • Imberhorne School, East Grinstead
God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History
Author: S.W. Hawking
2005, Penguin, softback
0-141-01878-X
£14.99
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