This book is divided up into mathematics of various era and
geographical locations. It gives a flavour of mathematics and mathematicians not
only in Britain but also in the Commonwealth.
Since each chapter is written by a new author I found some of
the chapters pretty technical and others very accessible where the emphasis is
on the people involved. A glossary might have made the book more accessible on the
technical side but it would have to be such a large glossary that the book
loses its compactness.
There are some really interesting snippets about mathematicians
and their social life. I found the last chapter by Jeremy Gray the most
interesting and controversial and will let you read this to find out why.
However I do have one serious reservation – the size of the
font is far too small and in general I struggled to read this book. Hence the
three stars.
Any serious history of mathematics student should purchase
this book as it provides good motivation to the methods and approaches that lie
behind the mathematics.
