The Search for Certainty ─ A Journey Through the History of Mathematics, 1800-2000

Authoritative and highly readable, this global survey is suited to those with no background in math as well as more informed readers and teachers. Presented in a chronological and thematic manner, these twenty-six absorbing and entertaining essays focus on the era from 1800 to 2000.

Contributors such as Henri Poincare, Judith V. Grabiner, and H. S. M. Coxeter discuss topics ranging from logic and infinity to Fermat's Last Theorem. Additional subjects include the evolution of group theory, the development of modern statistics, and ENIAC, the first computer. Each of the brief, self-contained articles features an illuminating introduction and an extensive bibliography. Numerous relevant and provocative illustrations appear throughout the book.

Dover (2012) new selection from the work From Five Fingers to Infinity: A Journey Through the History of Mathematics, published by the Open Court Publishing Company, Chicago, 1994. Historical Exhibit 5 and Chapters 3 and 6 have been added to this edition.