W.S. Anglin

Well.

It's a pleasant book, something useful: a very accessible run through the history of mathematics with a paragraph per major contributor, small sections, really an interesting development of what must inevitably be a hopelessly incomplete history of mathematics. I liked it. This is to paint a picture of what developments have been like. Anglin keeps our interest with philosophical consequences of the theorems developed. Once Plato and Aristotle are mentioned, their arguments don't go away. So it's a fun book, suitable for a first study of the history of mathematics. Not for a semester-long course or anything; this is a couple days of study to build up a context for a fuller exploration. There are problems in the book allowing you to really follow along some of the brief discoveries.

But. Anglin decides to not separate his Christian faith from his mathematics. The (otherwise excellent) exercises include some comparisons of theorems to Psalms and apologetic arguments. A concise history necessarily has tragic omissions of important mathematicians and significant developments (e.g. the three lines for Legendre), but Anglin seems to find space for Ezekiel and St. Augustine. Some mentioned mathematicians get less space than that devoted to arguing that E.T. Bell is a "Real Madman" for his treatment of Pascal in (the wonderful) Men of Mathematics.

It's funny. But it's still a good baby introduction to the history of math, something enabling this math major to greater appreciation of study.… (mehr)