History of Mathematics
Selected bibliography
Recommendations for this page cheerfully accepted. This is very much a
work in progress and will change as we move through the semester.
Many of these books are in the UPS library. I've tried to take note of
the ones that are (though I may have missed a few that are also in my personal
library)
Last revised: August 19, 2011
- General histories and textbooks
- Aaboe, Asger, Episodes From the Early History of
Mathematics, Mathematical Association of America, 1998.
- Comments: A delightful and readable collection of
essays.
- Albers, Donald j. and Reid, Constance, International Mathematical Congresses:
An illustrated History 1893 - 1986
- Berggren, J. L., Episodes in the Mathematics
of Medieval Islam, Springer-Verlag, 1986
- Comments: In UPS library. A very enjoyable and readable book.
- Boyer, Carl B., History of Mathematics, second edition,
John Wiley & Sons 1991
- Burton, David, The History of Mathematics, McGraw-Hill, 2011
- Comments: An earlier edition is in the UPS library. The
current edition is the textbook for Math 420, Spring, 2011.
- Fowler, The Mathematics of Plato's Academy, Claredon Press 1999
- Gillins, Richard J., Mathematics in the Time of the Pharoahs. MIT Press, 1972
- Greenberg, Marvin Jay, Euclidean and Non-Euclidean
Geometries, Fourth Edition,
W. H. Freeman and Company, 2008
- Comments: We have used this for our Honors 213
and Math 300 courses for many years. It contains
considerable information on the development of the
axiomatic method, the history of Euclidean geometry,
the development of non-Euclidean geometry, and
some of the foundational issues involved.
- Heath, Thomas, A History of Greek Mathematics, Dover 1981
- Katz, Victor J.: A History of Mathematics,
Addison-Wesley, 2004
- Kline, Morris, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times,
Oxford University Press, 1972
- Kline, Morris, Mathematics and the Loss of Certainty, Oxford
University Press 1982
- Knorr, Wilbur, The Ancient Tradition of Geometric Problems, Birkhäuser,
1986
- Lloyd, G. E. R., Early Greek Science, North 1970.
- Li Yan and Du Shiran, Chinese Mathematics - A Concise History,
Crossley, John, and Lun, Anthony, translators. Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1987
- Comments: In UPS library.
- Mankiewicz, The Story of Mathematics, Princeton University
Press, 2000
- Martzloff, Jean-Claude, A History of Chinese Mathematics (Stephen
S. Wilson translator) 1997.
- Mikami, Yoshio, The Development of Mathematics in China and Japan,
Cambridge University Press, 1959.
- Neugebauer, Otto, The Exact Sciences in Antiquity, Princeton
University Press, 1951.
- Shenitzer, Abe, ed., Mathematical evolutions, Mathematical
Association of America, 2002
- Simmons, George F., Calculus Gems, McGraw-Hill, 1992
- Stillwell, John: Mathematics and its History, Springer (Undergraduate
Texts in Mathematics), 2002
- Struik, Dirk J.: A Concise History of Mathematics, Dover
Publications, 1987
- Suzuki, Jeff, A History of Mathematics
- Suzuki, Jeff, A History of Mathematics
- Van der Waerden, B. L., Geometry and Algebra in Ancient Civilizations,
Springer 1983
- History of ancient mathematics
- History of modern mathematics
- Biggs, N. L, Lloyd, E. K, and Wilson, R. V., Graph Theory
1736 - 1936. Claredon Press, 1977
- Comments: In UPS library. Recommended
by Rob Beezer
- Dieudonné, Jean, A History of Algebraic
and Differential Topology, 1900 - 1960. Birkhäuser, 1988
- Edwards, C. H., Jr. The Historical Development of the Calculus,
Springer-Verlag, 1974
- Galison, Peter, Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps,
W. W. Norton & Company, 2003
(*)- Comments: A wonderful book setting the work of Poincaré
and Einstein in the context of the effort to synchronize clocks and
determine longitude (Poincaré was twice President of the French Bureau
of Longitudes).
- Grabiner, Judith V, "Why Did Lagrange "Prove" the Parallel
Postulate?" American Mathematical Monthly116
(January, 2009) pp 3 - 18
- Comments: A wonderful read!
- Gray, Jeremy, Worlds out of Nothing: A Course in
the History of Geometry in the 19th Century, Springer Verlag,
2007
- Comments: Jeremy Gray is one of the leading
historians of mathematics today. I have ordered this
for our library (and have a personal copy)
- James, I. M. (ed.), History of Topology,
North Holland Elsevier, 1999.
- Klein, Felix, Lectures on Mathematics, MacMillan & Co., 1894
- Comments: In UPS library. The library
copy was owned by Francis W. Hanawalt, Professor of Mathematics at the
then College of Puget Sound, 1908 - 1934
- Klein, Felix (M. Ackerman, tr.) Development of Mathematics in the
19th Century. Math Sci Press
- Comments: In UPS library. Our copy is a translation
of the 1928 edition of Vorlesungen uber die
Entwicklung der Mathematique im 19 Johrhundert.
- Klein, Morris, Mathematics, the loss of certainty,
Oxford University Press, 1980
- Lehto, Olli, Mathematics Without Borders:
A History of the
International Mathematical Union, Springer-Verlag, 1998
- Moore, Gregory H. The emergence of open sets, closed sets, and limit points in analysis and topology.
Historia Mathematica 35 (2008) pp 220 - 241
- Comments: A very interesting paper in the history of topology
- McCormmach, Russell. Hanri Poincaré and the Quantum Theory.
Isis, Vol. 58, #1 (Spring, 1967) pp 37 - 55
- Comments: At the end of his life, Poincaré
was made aware of the new quantum theory. Trained as a classical
physicist, he
dove into this new field with energy and enthusiasm.
- Parshall, Karen Hunger and Rowe, David E.
The Emergence of the American Mathematical Research Community, 1876-1900:
J. J. Sylvester, Felix Klein, and E. H. Moore, American Mathematical
Society, London Mathematical Society, 1991.
- Poincaré, Henri, Science and Hypothesis
- Reid, Constance, International mathematical congresses:
an illustrated history 1893 - 1986, Springer-Verlag 1987
- Russo, Lucio (Levy, Silvio, translator) The Forgotten Revolution. Springer
2003
- Salsburg, David, The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized
Science in the Twentieth Century
, W. H. Freeman, 2001
- Stigler, Stephen M, The History of Statistics: the Measurement of Uncertainty
before 1900, Belknap Press, 1986
- Stigler, Stephen M., Statistics on the Table: the History of
Statistical Concepts and Methods, Harvard University Presss 1999
- Biographical material
- Collective Biographies (in order by author(s)
)
- Bell, E. T., Men of Mathematics, Simon and Schuster 1937
.
Touchstone edition 1986.
- Individual Biographies (in order by mathematician)
- Mashaal, Maurice (Anna Pierrehumbert, translator), Bourbaki:
A Secret Society of Mathematicians
American Mathematical Society 2006
(*)- Comments: Translation of Bourbaki:
Une société secrète de mathématiciens, Paris 2002.
- A good introduction to the work of Bourbaki, how it started the
resurgence of French Mathematics after the disaster of WWI, and the
effect of Bourbaki on mathematics generally in the 20th century.
- Ore, Oystein, Cardano, the Gambling Scholar.
1965 edition of the 1953 Princeton University Press
edition.
- Comments: In UPS library.
- Reid, Constance, Courant in Göttingen and New York: the story
of an improbable mathematician, Springer-Verlag 1976
- Comments: In UPS library. This and her book on Hilbert are
two of my favorite biographies in mathematics.
- Box, Joan Fisher, R. A. Fisher, the Life of a Scientist, Wiley, 1978
- Comments: in UPS library
- History of Statistics
- Bühler, W. K., Gauss: A Biographical
Study, Springer-Verlag, 1981
- Mazryn, Vladimir, and Shaposhnikova,
Tatyana, Jacques Hadamard: A Universal Mathematician.
- Jason, Herbert, Bro. S. M.:
Charles Hermite: Father of Modern Mathematical Analysis
- Reid, Constance, Hilbert, Springer-Verlag, 1970
- Comments: In UPS library. This and her book on Courant are
two of my favorite biographies in mathematics.
- Dzielska, Maria, Hypatia of Alexandria, (F. Lyra, tr.)
Harvard University Press 1995
- Comments: In UPS library. A reasonably even-handed
telling of the story.
- Deakin, Michael A., Hypatia of Alexandria: Mathematician and Martyr,
Prometheus Books, 2007
- Comments: In UPS library.
- Gillispie, Charles Coulston, Pierre-Simon Laplace, Princeton University Press
1997
- Hahn, Roger, Pierre Simon Laplace, Harvard University Press,
2005
- Parker, John, R. L. Moore, Mathematician and Teacher The Mathematical
Association of America, 2005
- Comments: A sympathetic biography of R. L. (Robert Lee) Moore
and the Moore method of teaching, but also a good introduction to
the development of American research mathematics in the first half
of the 20th century. Some interesting notes on the time
that George Bruce Halsted spent as Moore's teacher in Texas.
- Reid, Constance, Neyman - From Life, Springer-Verlag 1982
- Comments: In UPS library
- History of Statistics
- Appell, Paul, Henri Poincaré (Series Nobles
vies - Grandes oeuvres, Librairie Plon, Paris 1925)
- Barrow-Green, June, Poincaré and the Three Body Problem,
History of Mathematics, Vol. 11, American Mathematical Society 1997
( *)
- Comments: A good historical discussion of the prize of Oscar II
and the difficulties involved in the prize competition. A
technical summary of the final paper by Poincaré,
the problem with his original paper, and the differences between the
paper submitted for the prize and the final paper in Acta
Mathematica.
- Bellivier, Andre, Henri Poincaré, ou la
vocation souveraine
- Dantzig, Tobias, Henri Poincaré:
Critic of Crisis
- Szpiro, George G., Poincaré's
Prize: The Hundred-Year Quest to Solve One of Math's Greatest
Puzzles. Dutton Publishers (Penguin Group (USA), 2007
- Weil, André (Gage, Jennifer, trans.).
The Apprenticeship of a
Mathematician, Birkhäuser, 1992
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