Numeracy has shaped human history as much as literacy: mathematics has enabled us to measure the cosmos, control the Earth, and create all technological change. A Cultural History of Mathematics presents the first comprehensive and global history from antiquity to today.
The work is divided into 6 volumes, with each volume covering the same topics, so readers can either study a period/volume or follow a topic across history. The 6 volumes cover:
Antiquity (c.3000 BCE-500 CE); the
Medieval Age (500-1400); the
Early Modern Age (1450-1687); the
Eighteenth Century (1687-1800); the
Nineteenth Century (1800-1914); the
Modern Age (1914-present).
Themes (and chapter titles) are: everyday numeracy; practice & profession; inventing mathematics; mathematics & worldviews; describing & understanding the world; mathematics & technological change; representing mathematics.
The page extent for the pack is approximately 1536pp. Each volume opens with Notes on Contributors and an Introduction and concludes with Notes, Bibliography, and an Index.
The Cultural Histories SeriesA Cultural History of Mathematics is part of The Cultural Histories Series. Titles are available both as printed hardcover sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a one-off purchase and tangible reference for their shelves, or as part of a fully-searchable digital library available to institutions by annual subscription or perpetual access (see www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com).
Dauben, Joseph W.: - Joseph W. Dauben is Distinguished Professor of History and History of Science at the City University of New York. He is the author of Georg Cantor, His Mathematics and Philosophy of the Infinite and Abraham Robinson: The Creation of Nonstandard Analysis, a Personal and Mathematical Odyssey. A graduate of Harvard University (Ph.D. '72), he has been editor of Historia Mathematica and a former chairman of the International Commission on the History of Mathematics. Professor Dauben has been a fellow of the American Academy in Rome, a member of the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), is a Life Member of Clare Hall (Cambridge), an honorary member of the Institute for History of Natural Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and recipient of the American Mathematical Society's Albert Leon Whiteman Memorial Prize for History of Mathematics.
Rowe, David E.: - David E. Rowe is Professor emeritus of History of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Mainz University. His principal research interests concern developments in Western mathematics and physics during the period 1800 to 1950 with special focus on Göttingen University. Since 2011 he and Klaus Volkert have co-edited the series Mathematik im Kontext. He has written or co-edited sixteen books, most recently Emmy Noether: Mathematician Extraordinaire (Springer 2021).
