Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
Florian Cajori's A History of Elementary Mathematics provides upper-level undergraduates and graduate students with a comprehensive survey that ranges from ancient to modern worlds. It was written specifically with teaching methods in mind, and it offers educators valuable suggestions on the best approaches to instruction.Beginning with the number systems and numerals of antiquity, the book first traces the development of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry in Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The second part explores the influence of Hindu and Arabic mathematicians on medieval European thought. A broad-based overview in the final section examines the trends that led to modern mathematics, including arithmetic's growth as a science and art and reforms in its teaching, the renaissance of algebra, and applications of Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry. The author makes extensive use of the works of Cantor, Hankel, Unger, De Morgan, Peacock, Gow, Allman, Loria, and other prominent writers to illustrate his subjects.
A distinguished teacher who almost single-handedly created the history of mathematics as an academic subject in the United States, Cajori was appointed to the nation's first chair in the history of mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley in 1918. He remains one of the most quoted historians of mathematics, and this volume represents one of his finest professional achievements.