About The Book
Since many excellent treatises on the history of mathematics are available, there may seem to be little reason for writing another. But most current works are severely technical, written by mathematicians for other mathematicians or for historians of science. Despite the admirable scholarship and often clear presentation of these works, they are not especially well adapted to the undergraduate classroom. (Perhaps the most notable exception is Howard Eves’s popular account, An Introduction to the History of Mathematics.) There is a need today for an undergraduate textbook, which is also accessible to the general reader interested in the history of mathematics. In the following pages, I have tried to give a reasonably full account of how mathematics has developed over the past 5000 years. Because mathematics is one of the oldest intellectual instruments, it has a long story, interwoven with striking personalities and outstanding achievements. This narrative is chronological, beginning with the origin of mathematics in the great civilizations of antiquity and progressing through the later decades of the twentieth century. The presentation necessarily becomes less complete for modern times, when the pace of discovery has been rapid and the subject matter more technical.
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