Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times

What Hacker News says

1. mindcrimeAug 2024
   I've been going through that very video lecture series the last couple of weeks. Good stuff. And in the lectures he mentions a number of books. I looked a few up on Amazon, and then looked at the associated Amazon recommendations, and so far have this small list of books related to Maths history that look worth reading:

     Mathematics and Its History (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics) 3rd ed. 2010 Edition by John Stillwell
   
     The History of the Calculus and Its Conceptual Development (Dover Books on Mathematics) by Carl B. Boyer
   
     A History of Mathematics by Carl B. Boyer
   
     A Concise History of Mathematics: Fourth Revised Edition (Dover Books on Mathematics)A Concise History of Mathematics: Fourth Revised Edition (Dover Books on Mathematics) by Dirk J. Struik
   
     Introduction to the Foundations of Mathematics: Second Edition (Dover Books on Mathematics) Second Edition by Raymond L. Wilder
   
     Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times by Morris Kline (3 volume set)
   
     The Calculus Wars: Newton, Leibniz, and the Greatest Mathematical Clash of All Time by Jason Socrates Bardi
   

   There is also a "thing" in mathematics that is sometimes called the "genetic approach" where "genetic" is roughly equivalent to "historical" or maybe "developmental". IOW, a "genetic approach" book teaches a subject by tracing the development of the subject over its history. One popular book in this mold is:

     The Calculus: A Genetic Approach by Otto Toeplitz

   Show morethread
2. pvgJul 2020
   but it's always interested me.

   There's Morris Kline's Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times which is 3 glorious fat volumes of just this stuff.

   thread
3. atribecalledqstAug 2024
   On the subject of more context in math, I've always wondered if having a grasp of the history of math would be helpful in getting better at solving mathematical problems. i.e. would learning more about how math developed over time, and how people solved important problems in the past, help me in trying to solve some other problem today?

   Years ago I bought the 3-volume set "Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times", but never had the time to get past the first few chapters. I'd be interested in any recommendations for math history tomes like that.

   Show morethread
4. bkovitzApr 2008
   Latest books:

   _Made to Stick_, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, about what makes some ideas memorable and others forgettable. Urban legends, for example, propagate quickly on a vast scale despite having no marketing budget.

   _Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times_, by Morris Kline. Did you know that Gauss proved, in a section of his doctoral thesis, that partial-fraction decomposition can always yield real coefficients?

   Show morethread