This compact, well-written history covers major mathematical ideas and techniques from the ancient Near East to 20th-century computer theory, surveying the works of Archimedes, Pascal, Gauss, Hilbert, and many others. "The author's ability as a first-class historian as well as an able mathematician has enabled him to produce a work which is unquestionably one of the best." — Nature.
A Concise History of Mathematics
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
By dr m green
Format:Paperback
This book has been around for many years, but as a brief introduction to the history (and people) of mathematics, it is hard to beat. The treatment of the 16th to early 20th centuries, covering solutions of the cubic and the appearance of i (square root of -1) through to the beginnings of modern abstract mathematics, could hardly be improved on in so few pages.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Natasha120
Format:Paperback
This book is exactly what it says - concise. If you are looking for a detailed history I would recommend Carl Boyer's rather more substantial "A History of Mathematics". However, don't be put off by this, as Struik's book is perfect if you just want an overview of the subject. I have found it particularly useful because it spends the majority of its time discussing later European Mathematics, and less time on Babylonian and Classical, which, although very interesting, don't really help the reader to understand the transformations of early practical maths into the abstract entity that we see today. The chapters vary in length, but are conveniently split into numbered sections, and thoroughly referenced. Not too much prior mathematical knowledge is needed, and there are very few actual equations, but some idea of general topics would certainly help the reader to fully appreciate the argument. Some people may find the style of writing intense, but overall I would certainly recommend this book to anyone, student or otherwise, wishing to enhance their knowledge of Mathematics and its origins.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.1 out of 5 stars
9 reviews
50 of 53 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pocket size Bible of History of Mathematics
13 Aug 2000
By Joel Sanchez Gonzalez
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
If you are looking for a book that clearly describes the evolution of mathematics, you don't need to try more, this book is for you.
Struik's book, "A Concise History of Mathematics", is a well documented book with the main contributions, dates, and names of the people involved in the development of mathematics from their ancients origins until the first half of the 20th century.
Struik's style of writing is clear and, how the title of the book says, concise, highlighting the relevant discoveries made in the field and relating them in order to give a better understanding of the subject.
Reading is easy for all people because Struik avoids to use formulas where it is not necessary, focusing more in the works of the great mathematicians and describing them of a comprehensible way.
Another excellent feature of the book is the great bibliography that contains, with a many references to other books not only in English, but in other languages also.
Somebody would hope to find more mathematical demonstrations and more illustrations, but this is not the objective of the book, contents in a single volume of 228 pages are the most important facts of the history of the mathematics, therefore, the relationship between cost and content is excellent.
A Concise History of Mathematics is a classical book, written by a world wide recognized author, of a clear and concise manner.
All people interested in this area of the mathematics must have this book in their shelf.
19 of 25 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent context
31 Dec 2003
By Steven T. Cannon
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This is a particularly clear-minded view of the progression of mathematical history. The book serves to convince that understanding math (as possibly opposed to science) requires a knowledge of its history. The great advance of twentieth century mathematics is its achievement of higher levels of abstraction. But without the history this abstraction is just puff. This book leaves off at 1945.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Small but surprisingly informative
22 Dec 2012
By Alan U. Kennington
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I bought this book by Struik 10 years ago and read it 8 years ago. I was not expecting much because it is such a small book in comparison to other books on mathematics history. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Struik managed to include many historical observations which I have not seen in ten or so other books on mathematics history.
Chapter 1 contains speculations on mathematics in the Old Stone Age (which we now call the palaeolithic), which is always very dangerous due to the lack of real evidence, but it's entertaining to speculate anyway.
Chapter 2 covers ancient Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics. This is covered in very much greater detail, and more perspicaciously, by Boyer and Merzbach. Chapter 3 covers ancient Greek mathematics in 27 pages. (Perhaps one could observe that the history of ancient Greek mathematics has been done to death. Everyone who can afford pen and paper seems to have written about it.) Chapter 4 does medieval Arabic mathematics in 12 pages. Chapter 5 does European Renaissance mathematics in 16 pages. Then there's a short chapter each for the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. It's all extremely brief!
One of the greatest strengths of this book is the references to the literature. I have followed many of these "links" in the last 8 years, and it is beneficial to follow them, even though many of them are difficult to obtain.
One of the little surprises in this book is on page 82, where it is explained that Oresme introduced graphs such as we generally think of as Cartesian coordinates, graphing variable Y against variable X, more than 250 years before Descartes. I later found this interesting fact mentioned also in Boyer and Merzbach, pages 239 and 319-320. (In fact, Descartes apparently never used Cartesian coordinates at all.)
Conclusion:
This book has a good quantity and quality of references to the academic literature. It contains many insights which are not found much in other history books. It's short, but quite densely packed with information. You might like to skip over the first speculative chapter though.
Chapter 1 contains speculations on mathematics in the Old Stone Age (which we now call the palaeolithic), which is always very dangerous due to the lack of real evidence, but it's entertaining to speculate anyway.
Chapter 2 covers ancient Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics. This is covered in very much greater detail, and more perspicaciously, by Boyer and Merzbach. Chapter 3 covers ancient Greek mathematics in 27 pages. (Perhaps one could observe that the history of ancient Greek mathematics has been done to death. Everyone who can afford pen and paper seems to have written about it.) Chapter 4 does medieval Arabic mathematics in 12 pages. Chapter 5 does European Renaissance mathematics in 16 pages. Then there's a short chapter each for the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. It's all extremely brief!
One of the greatest strengths of this book is the references to the literature. I have followed many of these "links" in the last 8 years, and it is beneficial to follow them, even though many of them are difficult to obtain.
One of the little surprises in this book is on page 82, where it is explained that Oresme introduced graphs such as we generally think of as Cartesian coordinates, graphing variable Y against variable X, more than 250 years before Descartes. I later found this interesting fact mentioned also in Boyer and Merzbach, pages 239 and 319-320. (In fact, Descartes apparently never used Cartesian coordinates at all.)
Conclusion:
This book has a good quantity and quality of references to the academic literature. It contains many insights which are not found much in other history books. It's short, but quite densely packed with information. You might like to skip over the first speculative chapter though.
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4.1 out of 5 stars
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