Summary: A little dated, but an excellent history for math lovers.
Comment: This book was published in the 1930's and therefore is not up-to-date with contemporary mathematicians.
That's OK though. Most of those who like Mathematics and particularly the writings of Lancelot Hogben and, more recently, Jan Gullberg have probably read later works anyway.
What I liked about this book is that is an easy to read history of the key men and women who developed Mathematics, going as far back as Aristotle and ending in the early part of the 20th century.
It brings out the characters that lived behind these great minds and the book almost reads like a novel, except that we can assume that it was all true. I know many people who find it hard to believe that mathematicians were actually living, breathing human beings, and actually did have other lives when they weren't preoccupied with their abacus.
A great read for math lovers and a great source of inspiration too.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A must-read for math lovers!
Comment: This is a superbly written collection of biographies. Mr. Bell was obviously a great writer--his ability shows in how he brings each mathematician to life, as well as in his witty sense of sarcasm. Each chapter is dedicated mainly to the life and career of the mathematician in question, and to a lesser extent to the substance of his mathematical work.
I decided to give the book four stars instead of five because I felt that it tackled too much in too little space. Not having any mathematical education beyond high school calculus (which I've completely forgotten), I found it very difficult at times to follow the technical discussions, despite Mr. Bell's assurance to the contrary in the Introduction. This is most likely, however, not something that the author could have remedied with a clearer explanation--let's face it, squeezing a mathematical genius's life work into three pages that a non-mathematician can (almost) comprehend is quite a challenge.
Overall, this book is well worth reading for anyone with an interest in mathematics and/or the sciences in general--keeping in mind, of course, that the focus of the book is the lives of great mathematicians and not an in-depth study of their work.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Timeless Classic
Comment: This timeless classic mixes history with a taste different concepts and ideas of mathematics. This book reminds the reader that the language of mathematics was written by people,not some higher race or specie. The history of mathematics is part of the history of mankind and it has its heroes. But their names are different. Read and enjoy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The definitive mathematical biography of its time
Comment: This was the book that piqued my interest in mathematics and the people who does mathematics for a living. Be aware that this book was written in the days when only caucasian western men did mathematics. Asian mathematics weren't considered and women mathematicians were considered to be novelties, not worthy of attention.
This book considered all of the heavy weights in mathematics at the time. From the Greeks onward until those mathematicians considered worthy at the time of Bell's writing. Bell's review of their lives are partly general biography, part assessment of their mathematics, and part psychological studies of why they did what they did. Bell is by no means an objective reporter of the facts. He definitely had his favorites and he had his not so favorites, and he was not shy about letting you know. That is partly why this is such a good book. He puts in his opinions of the foibles and genius of each of the men he is writing about and he puts their genius in a pecking order that he himself created. I found it informative and entertaining. Others may find it bothersome, but this is by far the most complete book of its kind for its day. I recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in mathematics and mathematicians.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An excellent read, for all people
Comment: This book is a collection of dozens of (short) biographies of mathematicians ranging from the ancient Greeks to leading 19th century mathematicians, like Cantor or Weierstrass. His writing is charming, to say the least, and he puts forth his personal opinion numerous times throughout the text. While the work contains some mathematics, it is at a level simple enough for most people to understand, and in any case, those parts can be skipped through without too much loss in content.
We learn that mathematicians really are like the rest of the world, not nerds or ivory-tower type academicians. The types of people here span the whole gamut, and as their lives were intertwined with historical events of the time, we learn a bit about general history in this book as well.
Bell's writing is also excellent. He keeps the style varied, and as his material spans almost 2500 years, the book is never boring. My personal favorites were the biographies about Galois and Abel, and as their lives were tragically cut short by lots of unlucky circumstances, Bell writes wonderfully about their lives and how mathematics touched them, and in return was blessed by them. It is perhaps Galois' story which can ring true with younger readers - like many teenagers, he was full of ambition, dreams, and hopes, but, well, he had an incredible gift for mathematics and also a whole lot of bad luck - but you'll have to read the book to see for yourself!
This book is definitely not to be missed. Although the book is long, you'll enjoy every minute of it, and also come away wiser about a group of people not many people in this world know much about.