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The Great Mathematicians Reviews

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Summary: A reprint text
Comment: The Great Mathematicians is a conversational text (no graphs, charts, or formulas) about mathematicians whose ideas have influenced or touched us into the 20th century. Written in the 1930's, this edition is a 1993 reprint, so I figure that the author's ideas have a sort of permanency, also.

Turnbull discusses nine immortal mathematicians and mentions dozens of others. In the 1930s he clearly had a grasp on the directions of mathematics, but his slant definitely is toward geometry and calculus. He does not even mention mathematical logicians.

I liked the personal descriptions of the lives of mathematicians. Yet this book only begins to give a slant on the history of development of mathematics, the cross currents of the field. This book would be an interesting supplement to a college level or high school honors class, but the students will not emerge with a time-line of mathematical development.

Or, you could read this for general interest and still get something from it.

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