5: Interesting reading
I haven't read much on this subject, but I enjoyed this book. The description above says that it's designed for college juniors and seniors, and many of the technical details really will require that level of mathematical maturity. However, there is enough of what the author calls an emphasis on the "bibliographical element" that much of it would be interesting to read through only skimming the technical parts. The author also tries to explain why progress was made at certain times in history but not at others.The scope is relatively comprehensive: spanning from archeological finds that suggest early numbers systems to early twentieth century work in countability and set theory. The text itself reminded me quite a bit of my old high school history books -- readable but a little slow-paced at times. More interesting, though, are the problems at the end of every section
-- problems that require the use of ideas and techniques from the time period being described. The author suggests these exercises as a good way to learn both mathematics and history, but they can be safely skipped. Just a single complaint: the book seems to have a slight slant toward Western mathematics: early Greeks, Europeans from the middle ages, modern Americans recieve the bulk of the attention while there is a single ten-page section entitled "Mathematics in the Near and Far East". While not a fatal flaw (it is of course true that most of modern mathematics has its roots in the West), I would have liked to see a more balanced account.
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