Summary: A history of PURE Mathematics
Comment: An interesting exposition of the history of mathematics up to the mid-20th century, but the author's attitude is somewhat irritating. I would describe him somewhat of a "purist fundamentalist". His denigration of the contributions of applied mathematicians shows throughout the book. His best praise for someone is "so and so did not only contribute to applied mathematics", as if pure mathematics is the superior art.
Nevertheless, the book is an interesting read and the exercises are full of interesting mathematical puzzles. A word of caution is that the reader needs some college-level mathematics to understand much of the book, despite its being written in simpler language. Some of the latter chapters also get confusing since he talks about 5 mathematicians at any one time, jumping from the contributions of one to another in mid-sentence, then going back to someone else described earlier. It would have been more helpful if his sections were better-defined and had titles. Could also use an update to the 21st century.
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Summary: Usefulness
Comment: Excellent organization and coverage. Type size limits effectiveness for practical reference on a routine basis. Subject matter being oriented toward those accustomed to frequent reference should serve as guide.
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Summary: A great introduction to the history of math
Comment: When I was a high school student, I loved math, but hated math classes, with their tedious emphasis on going over things until even the most mathematically ungifted either got the stuff (or gave up!) the repetitive teaching necessary to inculcate it into the densest heads, and the problem solving that went on long after I had "got it."
Would that I'd then had this book. Boyer has written a great introductory work to both the history of math and math itself, which you can read at your own pace, study until you get it and then move on, with lots of references if you for some reason want to understand something even better. By grouping the chapters around eras of mathematicians, and various mathematicians, he makes the history of math approachable even to those without degrees in mathematics.
This is not necessarily THE book you'd want to read if you're working on a masters or PhD in math, but the sort of book you'd really love to read as a bright high school student or undergraduate student. All in all a great book, but, as other reviewers have written, not exactly the Encyclopaedia Britanica, but then, how many people read the Britanica for pleasure?
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Summary: Everyone should read this book
Comment: Hey I read this book loved it, and everyone should read it! Hey I am no brain, I do not belong to Mensa, nor am I endowed with any superior intelect, I am an average guy, Just a B student, who fell in love with this book. Anybody if they really want can understand this book and really appreciate what math is. Mathmatics before this book was just a bunch of numbers on a page any countless formulas to memorize, however this book changed me, I see math a whole different way now. Studying the history of mathmatics is like studying the history of the world. It is a shame this information is never taught in elementry school, it would make kids a lot more interested in math and actually be able to see what the numbers mean. After reading this book a door has been opened. I now am more curious about mathmatics and well everything! I understand where those numbers came from, Pie no longer is something I eat or some funy thing in a formula to find the area of a circle, it actually means something to now.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not for the serious student of history of mathematics
Comment: Boyer can write pretty well. His tendency to wax on about the virtues of the people he writes about can get annoying, but overall this probably works to make a more engaging style. This kind of writing style is entirely appropriate for a textbook designed to draw readers into the world of mathematics, but is prone to wide, sweeping generalizations and ill-supported assumptions and occasionally, factually incorrect statements.
The reader who is serious about studying the development of mathematics will learn something from this book, but there are better places to learn it. Boyer, as indicated above, seems intent on "cleaning up" history to fit the nice picture he has of it. Unfortunately, merely reciting well-known mathematical legends does more harm than good; it obscures the real process of discovery, and the way mathematics has, and still does, develop.
There are errors in the book that indicate Boyer did not do his research. To keep this review short, I'll name one: Boyer credits Poincare with the Poincare disc model of hyperbolic geometry. Anyone that has actually looked at Riemann's very important 1854 lecture (one of the most important documents of 19th century mathematics) will realize this model is due to Riemann! Since Boyer spends quite a bit of time on Riemann, this is rather puzzling.
Boyer also relies on E.T. Bell for some biographical information. No serious historian of mathematics would (or should) reference Bell for biographies of mathematicians. Bell's caricatures are entertaining, but do a disservice to the subject.
This book is only recommended for those who want to get a vague idea of the history of mathematics, but do not particularly care about the details being correct. For that purpose, Boyer does a better job than most.