Synopsis
From the reviews of the first edition:
"[This book] can be described as a collection of critical historical essays dealing with a large variety of mathematical disciplines and issues, and intended for a broad audience¿ we know of no book on mathematics and its history that covers half as much nonstandard material. Even when dealing with standard material, Stillwell manages to dramatize it and to make it worth rethinking. In short, his book is a splendid addition to the genre of works that build royal roads to mathematical culture for the many." (Mathematical Intelligencer)
This second edition includes new chapters on Chinese and Indian number theory, on hypercomplex numbers, and on algebraic number theory. Many more exercises have been added, as well as commentary to the exercises explaining how they relate to the preceding section, and how they foreshadow later topics.
Booknews
A beautiful little book, certain to be treasured by several generations of mathematics lovers, by students and teachers so enlightened as to think of mathematics not as a forest of technical details but as the beautiful coherent creation of a richly diverse population of extraordinary people. In twenty chapters (which, though densely cross-linked, can be read in virtually any order) the author reviews the broad sweep of the issues in the principal topical sub- fields of mathematics. His writing is so luminous as to engage the interest of utter novices, yet so dense with particulars as to stimulate the imagination of professionals (even, on occasion, to instruct). Takes a broader view (and is more biographical) than either What is mathematics? (Courant & Robbins, 1941) or Geometry and the imagination (Hilbert & Cohn-Vossen, 1932), and is technically more specific that E.T. Bell's Men of mathematics (1937). Very attractively produced, with nice figures and an excellent bibliography. (NW) Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)