Review
Robson brings both a profound erudition in cuneiform and a nondogmatic constructionist view of mathematics to tell the history of Mesopotamian mathematics over the three millennia before the Common Era, connecting as she does the mathematical accomplishments to the cultural and societal norms of the day. . . . A magisterial work, lucidly written, certain to endure.
(
M. Schiff Choice )
Author Robson deals admirably with an enormous scope (more than 3,000 years, with roughly equal space devoted to each 500-year epoch); numerous sources (950 published clay tablets, all of which are available at a simple Website); and the cultural context (social history, an ethnomathematical approach).
(
Mathematics Magazine )
Robson's book is a wonderful summary of what we know so far, and will be the standard for this generation, but the potential is there for far more research to teach us even more about mathematics in ancient Iraq.
(
Victor J. Katz Mathematical Reviews )
Review
This work is an enormously significant contribution to the history of mathematics. No other work surveys the vast landscape of Mesopotamian mathematics from a position of the modern understanding of the past, incorporating the latest scholarship and yet still managing to be so accessible to nonspecialists. Robson's book is an outstanding guide that can be consulted by anyone interested in the field.
(
Duncan J. Melville, St. Lawrence University )