Men of Mathematics

E.T. Bell

Simon and Schuster, Oct 15, 1986 - Biography & Autobiography - 590 pages

From one of the greatest minds in contemporary mathematics, Professor E.T. Bell, comes a witty, accessible, and fascinating look at the beautiful craft and enthralling history of mathematics.

Men of Mathematics provides a rich account of major mathematical milestones, from the geometry of the Greeks through Newton’s calculus, and on to the laws of probability, symbolic logic, and the fourth dimension. Bell breaks down this majestic history of ideas into a series of engrossing biographies of the great mathematicians who made progress possible—and who also led intriguing, complicated, and often surprisingly entertaining lives.

Never pedantic or dense, Bell writes with clarity and simplicity to distill great mathematical concepts into their most understandable forms for the curious everyday reader. Anyone with an interest in math may learn from these rich lessons, an advanced degree or extensive research is never necessary.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - br77rino - LibraryThing

While there is one chapter on ancient mathematicians, the rest of the book is basically a chapter by chapter review of a dozen or so mathematicians, and their work, of the 17th, 18th, and 19th ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - tungsten_peerts - LibraryThing

This is a wonderful book. The only reason I dock it a star is that a few of the accounts (Galois, Cantor) have proven to be inaccurate-to-lurid -- this fact does detract somewhat from its ultimate ...

Contents

• INTRODUCTION: 3
• MODERN MINDS IN ANCIENT BODIES: 19
• S GENTLEMAN SOLDIER AND MATHEMATICIAN: 35
• THE PRINCE OF AMATEURS: 56
• GREATNESS AND MISERY OF MAN: 73
• ON THE SEASHORE: 90
• MASTER OF ALL TRADES: 117
• The Bernoullis seventeenthand eighteenth centuries: 131
• ANALYSIS INCARNATE: 139
• A LOFTY PYRAMID: 153
• FROM PEASANT TO SNOB: 172
• FRIENDS OF AN EMPEROR: 183
• THE DAY OF GLORY: 206
• THE PRINCE OF MATHEMATICIANS 218: 218
• 6 MATHEMATICS AND WINDMILLS: 270
• Converted by a nightmare Revelation of analytic geometry More: 294
• GENIUS AND POVERTY: 307
• THE GREAT ALGORIST: 327
• AN IRISH TRAGEDY 340: 340
• GENIUS AND STUPIDITY: 362
• INVARIANT TWINS: 378
• MASTER AND PUPIL 406: 406
• 3 COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE 433: 433
• THE MAN NOT THE METHOD 448: 448
• THE DOUBTER 466: 466
• ANIMA CANDIDA 484: 484
• ARITHMETIC THE SECOND 510: 510
• THE LAST UNIVERSALIST 526: 526
• PARADISE LOST? 655: 555
• INDEX 581: 581

About the author

Eric Temple Bell was born in 1883 in Aberdeen, Scotland. His early education was obtained in England. Coming to the United States in 1902, he entered Stanford University and took his A.B. degree in 1904. In 1908 he was teaching fellow at the University of Washington, where he took his A.M. degree in 1909. In 1911 he entered Columbia University, where he took his Ph.D. degree in 1912. He returned to the University of Washington as instructor in mathematics and became full professor in 1921. During the summers of 1924-28 he taught at the University of Chicago, and in 1926 (first half) at Harvard University, when he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology.

Dr. Bell was a former President of the Mathematical Association of America, a former Vice President of the American Mathematical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was on the editorial staffs of the Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, the American Journal of Mathematics, and the Journal of the Philosophy of Science. He belonged to The American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, the Circolo Matematico di Palermo, the Calcutta Mathematical Society, Sigma Xi, and Phi Beta Kappa, and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. He won the Bôcher Prize of the American Mathematical Society for his research work. His twelve published books include The Purple Sapphire (1924), Algebraic Arithmetic (1927), Debunking Science, and Queen of the Sciences (1931), Numerology (1933), and The Search for Truth (1934).

Dr. Bell died in December 1960, just before the publication of his latest book, The Last Problem.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Men of Mathematics; A Fireside book; A Touchstone book; Essandess paperback
• Author: E.T. Bell
• Edition: reprint, reissue
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 1986
• ISBN: 0671628186, 9780671628185
• Length: 590 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Science & Technology; History / Europe / Western; Mathematics / History & Philosophy; Science / General