A Concise History of Mathematics: Fourth Revised Edition

by Dirk Jan Struik

Book Overview

This compact, well-written history -- first published in 1948, and now in its fourth revised edition -- describes the main trends in the development of all fields of mathematics from the first available records to the middle of the 20th century. Students, researchers, historians, specialists -- in short, everyone with an interest in mathematics -- will find it engrossing and stimulating.
Beginning with the ancient Near East, the author traces the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486602559
• ISBN13: 9780486602554
• Release Date: August 1987
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Brief History of Mathematics,perhaps too concise.

I rather enjoyed reading this Dover classic on mathematics.Yet,there were some problems with the book.It's a vast topic,that's condensed into a rather small book.The author,Dirk J. Struik,did a wonderful job explaining the great giants of global historical mathematics.Now,if you're looking for the math geniuses of the twentith century,however,you'll miss them here.There is an excellent bibliograghy and many important basic formulas presented.The sketch portraits and rare photograghs add an insightful picture of the character of these esteemed numerologists.After reading this text,I found myself wanting to research more about their contributions to mathematics.Eventhough,i may be more advanced at understanding higher math concepts.This book presents a clear philosophical foundation,often skipped by math instructors today,because of time considerations. So, this book is the ideal text for any fellow math neophyte,who may cringe at the broad scope of classical mathematics.

excellent context

This is a particularly clear-minded view of the progression of mathematical history. The book serves to convince that understanding math (as possibly opposed to science) requires a knowledge of its history. The great advance of twentieth century mathematics is its achievement of higher levels of abstraction. But without the history this abstraction is just puff. This book leaves off at 1945.

Pocket size Bible of History of Mathematics

If you are looking for a book that clearly describes the evolution of mathematics, you don't need to try more, this book is for you.Struik's book, "A Concise History of Mathematics", is a well documented book with the main contributions, dates, and names of the people involved in the development of mathematics from their ancients origins until the first half of the 20th century.Struik's style of writing is clear and, how the title of the book says, concise, highlighting the relevant discoveries made in the field and relating them in order to give a better understanding of the subject.Reading is easy for all people because Struik avoids to use formulas where it is not necessary, focusing more in the works of the great mathematicians and describing them of a comprehensible way.Another excellent feature of the book is the great bibliography that contains, with a many references to other books not only in English, but in other languages also.Somebody would hope to find more mathematical demonstrations and more illustrations, but this is not the objective of the book, contents in a single volume of 228 pages are the most important facts of the history of the mathematics, therefore, the relationship between cost and content is excellent.A Concise History of Mathematics is a classical book, written by a world wide recognized author, of a clear and concise manner.All people interested in this area of the mathematics must have this book in their shelf.