Remarkable Mathematicians: From Euler to von Neumann (Spectrum Series) by Ioan James (PDF)

Description

Ioan James introduces and profiles sixty mathematicians from the era when mathematics was freed from its classical origins to develop into its modern form. The subjects, all born between 1700 and 1910, come from a wide range of countries, and all made important contributions to mathematics, through their ideas, their teaching, and their influence. James emphasizes their varied life stories, not the details of their mathematical achievements. The book is organized chronologically into ten chapters, each of which contains biographical sketches of six mathematicians. The men and women James has chosen to portray are representative of the history of mathematics, such that their stories, when read in sequence, convey in human terms something of the way in which mathematics developed. Ioan James is a professor at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford. He is the author of Topological Topics (Cambridge, 1983), Fibrewise Topology (Cambridge, 1989), Introduction to Uniform Spaces (Cambridge, 1990), Topological and Uniform Spaces (Springer-Verlag New York, 1999), and co-author with Michael C. Crabb of Fibrewise Homotopy Theory (Springer-Verlag New York, 1998). James is the former editor of the London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series and volume editor of numerous books. He is the organizer of the Oxford Series of Topology symposia and other conferences, and co-chairman of the Task Force for Mathematical Sciences of Campaign for Oxford.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “For those who plan to teach mathematics, some of these stories would make interesting asides in lectures of any level…Remarkable Mathematicians highlights the importance of personality and human interaction on the development of mathematical theory from the early 18th century to the early 20th century.” Math Horizons Book Description This 2003 book contains portrayals of sixty mathematicians, which collectively convey how mathematics developed into its modern form. Book Description Ioan James introduces and profiles sixty mathematicians, all born between 1700 and 1910, an era which saw mathematics freed from its classical origins to develop into its modern form. The book is organised chronologically into ten chapters, each of which contains potted life stories of six mathematicians, all of whom made an important contribution to mathematics, through their ideas, their teaching, their influence, and so on. They are sufficiently representative that their stories, when read in sequence, convey in human terms something of the way in which mathematics developed. About the Author Ioan James is the former Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford. He won both the Junior Berwick and Whitehead Prizes of the London Mathematical Society. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The biographies are fairly short and sweet, but it gives a good range of a large number of mathematicians. It basically gives you an introduction to them, and then there are other books with much greater detail.

⭐Don’t miss these captivating tales of the life and the times of mathematicians starting from the period of Tsar Peter the Great of Russia, and right up to recent times, at least up to and including the Cold War. Even if you aren’t in math, I think you are likely to be caught up in the drama of the various lives, times, and events. The writing is fast paced and engaging, much like that of Constance Reid’s books: “Hilbert”, or “Courant”… Over the tumultous historical periods, it has been said that mathematicians have been more likely than others to have been uprooted in the upheavals of history, perhaps because they are concerned with theories and ideas that are more universal. But their lives are still much affected by the times and the events of history: The French Revolution(Galois, Poisson, Fourier…), the Napolionic Wars(Cauchy, Abel…), the period of Bismarck and Nationalism in Europe(Weierstrass, Cantor, Lie…), the Russian Revolution(Alexander, Kolmogorov…), the two World Wars, and the crisis period between WWI and WWII(Banach, Hadamard, Courant, Hilbert…), and the Cold War(von Neumann, Wiener…). The pictures on the cover give you a sample of the profiles in the book: G. Polya, K. Weierstrass, A. N. Kolmogorov, N. Wiener, S. Kovalevskaya, and S.-D. Poisson. Even if you won’t get to meet them in person (I was a guest at George Polya’s ninetieth birthday!), this book is the next best thing.

⭐This book is concerned with the biographies of 60 great mathematicians who contributed to the development of mathematics during the last three hundred years. The lives of many of them are interwined because they were either close friends or enemies, a situation that is quite common in science as well as in other fields of human endeavour. Several mathematicians enjoyed a good and long life with the company of a supportive family but some, like Abel and Galoise, were unfortunate and perished at a very young age. Many of them contributed to a variety of mathematical fields during their lives while Euler and von Neumann were polymath that contributed also to many branches of physics and engineering. Reading the book is quite enjoyable and you can jump from the biography of one mathematician to another without following the chronological order of the book’s chapters. In my opinion, this book is a nice complement to “The Princeton Companion to Mathematics” where you can find all the details of the mathematics developed by Euler and colleagues.

⭐Mathematicians can be amazing people and are great contributors to society and education. What is really nice about this book is it doesn’t use a lot of mathematical jargon when it tells about the lives of famous mathematicians. It is more like a series of biological sketches on each one. This is a very enjoyable read!

⭐This book is a collection of short biographies of notable mathematicians from Euler to von Neumann. It does a good job of explaining both a mathematicians background and the significance of their contributions to mathematics. Great to read through or as a reference to have on the shelf.

⭐I read this book a few months ago. I thought it got kind of stale by the end, they way the author presents the information is fine, but I think that after a while the biographies start to run together. The mathematicians start to fall in similar types, like the mathematician who was famous and didn’t have many problems who overshadowed a brilliant mathematician who fell into obscurity. You do learn a lot of information about the mathematicians themselves, but I think that the book could have been better with less mathematicians, or more important famous ones (extend the time frame).

⭐To balance length of book, number of mathematicians, details of subjects is difficult. In general I think the author did a good job. But I did miss not seeing Paul Erdos included

⭐Though not the best edited book and with a frustrating bibliography which makes it hard to follow up, nevertheless where else will you find such a range of lives. Anyone who is interested in humanity’s experience over the last 300 years I think will find this fascinating. If you like Maths, so much the better but this is about people not maths – no equations just biography.

⭐Very good and useful book

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