History of Mathematics – serie

In the 100 years since the founding of the AMS, the American mathematical community has grown from a small group heavily dependent on European mathematicians to a large and influential group that in many areas sets the standard for the rest of the world. By the 1930s, there was a flourishing mathematical community to welcome the influx of mathematicians fleeing Europe. This volume, the first in the History of Mathematics series, brings together a variety of perspectives on the political, social, and mathematical forces that have shaped the American mathematical community in the past century.

The first section of the book deals with some of the influential mathematics departments in the United States. Functioning as centers of research and training, these departments played a major role in shaping the mathematical life in this country. The second section deals with an extraordinary conference held at Princeton in 1946 to commemorate the university's bicentennial. The influence of women in American mathematics, the burgeoning of differential geometry in the last 50 years, and discussions of the work of von Karman and Weiner are among other topics covered.

The present book is the third and final volume in the ""A Century of Mathematics in America"" collection. The theme of the second volume is continued here in articles describing the mathematics and the mathematical personalities in some of the nations' prominent departments: Johns Hopkins, Clark, Columbia, MIT, Michigan, Texas, and the Institute for Advanced Study.

Algebraic groups and Lie groups are important in most major areas of mathematics, occuring in diverse roles such as the symmetries of differential equations and as central figures in the Langlands program for number theory. In this book, Professor Borel looks at the development of the theory of Lie groups and algebraic groups, highlighting the evolution from the almost purely local theory at the start to the global theory that we know today. As the starting point of this passage from local to global, the author takes Lie's theory of local analytic transformation groups and Lie algebras. He then follows the globalization of the process in its two most important frameworks: (transcendental) differential geometry and algebraic geometry. Chapters II to IV are devoted to the former, Chapters V to VIII, to the latter.The essays in the first part of the book survey various proofs of the full reducibility of linear representations of $SL 2M$, the contributions H. Weyl to representation and invariant theory for Lie groups, and conclude with a chapter on E. Cartan's theory of symmetric spaces and Lie groups in the large. The second part of the book starts with Chapter V describing the development of the theory of linear algebraic groups in the 19th century. Many of the main contributions here are due to E. Study, E. Cartan, and above all, to L. Maurer. After being abandoned for nearly 50 years, the theory was revived by Chevalley and Kolchin and then further developed by many others. This is the focus of Chapter VI. The book concludes with two chapters on various aspects of the works of Chevalley on Lie groups and algebraic groups and Kolchin on algebraic groups and the Galois theory of differential fields. The author brings a unique perspective to this study. As an important developer of some of the modern elements of both the differential geometric and the algebraic geometric sides of the theory, he has a particularly deep appreciation of the underlying mathematics. His lifelong involvement and his historical research in the subject give him a special appreciation of the story of its development.

The idea of chaos figures prominently in mathematics today. It arose in the work of one of the greatest mathematicians of the late 19th century, Henri Poincare, on a problem in celestial mechanics: the three body problem. This ancient problem - to describe the paths of three bodies in mutual gravitational interaction - is one of those which is simple to pose but impossible to solve precisely. Poincare's famous memoir on the three body problem arose from his entry in the competition celebrating the 60th birthday of King Oscar of Sweden and Norway. His essay won the prize and was set up in print as a paper in Acta Mathematica when it was found to contain a deep and critical error.In correcting this error Poincare discovered mathematical chaos, as is now clear from Barrow-Green's pioneering study of a copy of the original memoir annotated by Poincare himself, recently discovered in the Institut Mittag-Leffler in Stockholm. ""Poincare and the Three Body Problem"" opens with a discussion of the development of the three body problem itself and Poincare's related earlier work. The book also contains intriguing insights into the contemporary European mathematical community revealed by the workings of the competition. After an account of the discovery of the error and a detailed comparative study of both the original memoir and its rewritten version, the book concludes with an account of the final memoir's reception, influence and impact, and an examination of Poincare's subsequent highly influential work in celestial mechanics.

This book is about mathematics in Sweden between 1630 and 1950 - from S. Klingenstierna to M. Riesz, T. Carleman, and A. Beurling. It tells the story of how continental mathematics came to Sweden, how it was received, and how it inspired new results. The book contains a biography of Gosta Mittag-Leffler, the father of Swedish mathematics, who introduced the Weierstrassian theory of analytic functions and dominated a golden age from 1880 to 1910.Important results are analyzed and reproved in modern notation, with explanations of their relations to mathematics at the time. The book treats Backlund transformations, Mittag-Leffler's theorem, the Phragmen-Lindelof theorem and Carleman's contributions to the spectral theorem, quantum mechanics, and the asymptotics of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions. Other important features include sketches of personalities and university life. This book presents the first thorough treatment of mathematics in Sweden. It discusses the work of the great mathematicians and the development of mathematics throughout Europe. It also brings the mathematics of an era to life in an informative and highly readable way.

This volume traces the transformation of the United States from a mathematical backwater to a major presence during the quarter-century from 1876 to 1900. Presenting a detailed study of the major figures involved in this transformation, it focuses on the three most influential individuals - the British algebraist James Joseph Sylvester, the German standard-bearer Felix Klein, and the American mathematician Eliakim Hastings Moore - and on the principal institutions with which they were associated - the Johns Hopkins University, Gottingen University, and the University of Chicago. This book further analyzes the research traditions these men and their institutions represented, the impact they had on the second generation of American mathematical researchers, and the role of the American Mathematical Society in these developments.This is the first work ever written on the history of American mathematics during this period and one of the few books that examines the historical development of American mathematics from a wide perspective. By placing the development of American mathematics within the context of broader external factors affecting historical events, the authors show how the character of American research was decisively affected by the surrounding scientific, educational, and social contexts of the period. Aimed at a general mathematical audience and at historians of science, this book contains an abundance of unpublished archival material, numerous rare photographs, and an extensive bibliography.

This book presents, for the first time in English, the papers of Beltrami, Klein, and Poincare that brought hyperbolic geometry into the mainstream of mathematics. A recognition of Beltrami comparable to that given the pioneering works of Bolyai and Lobachevsky seems long overdue - not only because Beltrami rescued hyperbolic geometry from oblivion by proving it to be logically consistent, but because he gave it a concrete meaning (a model) that made hyperbolic geometry part of ordinary mathematics. The models subsequently discovered by Klein and Poincare brought hyperbolic geometry even further down to earth and paved the way for the current explosion of activity in low-dimensional geometry and topology.By placing the works of these three mathematicians side by side and providing commentaries, this book gives the student, historian, or professional geometer a bird's-eye view of one of the great episodes in mathematics. The unified setting and historical context reveal the insights of Beltrami, Klein, and Poincare in their full brilliance.

The Ausdehnungslehre of 1862 is Grassmann's most mature presentation of his 'extension theory'. The work was unique in capturing the full sweep of his mathematical achievements. Compared to Grassmann's first book, ""Lineale Ausdehnungslehre"", this book contains an enormous amount of new material, including a detailed development of the inner product and its relation to the concept of angle, the 'theory of functions' from the point of view of extension theory, and Grassmann's contribution to the Pfaff problem.In many ways, this book is the version of Grassmann's system most accessible to contemporary readers. This translation is based on the material in Grassmann's ""Gesammelte Werke"", published by B.G. Teubner (Stuttgart and Leipzig, Germany). It includes nearly all the Editorial Notes from that edition, but the 'improved' proofs are relocated, and Grassmann's original proofs are restored to their proper places. The original Editorial Notes are augmented by Supplementary Notes, elucidating Grassmann's achievement in modern terms. This volume is one of an informal sequence of works within the ""History of Mathematics"" series. Volumes in this subset, 'Sources', are classical mathematical works that served as cornerstones for modern mathematical thought.

This book reveals the rich collection of mathematical works located at the nation's first military school, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. It outlines the relevant history of the Academy, discusses the mathematics department and curriculum, and describes the development of the library during the nineteenth century. A major part of this book is an annotated catalog of the more than 1300 works published between 1496 and 1915 found in the West Point library. Mathematics and its instruction greatly influenced the development of the Academy, the technological growth of America's army, and the standards of the military profession. These events, in turn, were crucial to the overall development of mathematics, mechanics, and engineering during the nineteenth century in the United States.Three individuals played a prominent role in this chronicle: Sylvanus Thayer, Charles Davies, and Albert Church. Listed are rare and historically valuable works in a broad range of mathematical subjects. The collection clearly shows the strong European influence on the early Academy. Also listed are numerous textbooks by West Point faculty and graduates; significant contributions were made by these writers to algebra, geometry, calculus, descriptive geometry, mechanics, surveying, and mathematics education. This book provides an important resource for the general audience as well as for those in pursuit of more scholarly information. It contains many interesting photographs and valuable details about the West Point collection. It is a must-have for anyone interested in mathematical books and collections.

Although today's mathematical research community takes its international character very much for granted, this 'global nature' is relatively recent, having evolved over a period of roughly 150 years - from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. During this time, the practice of mathematics changed from being centered on a collection of disparate national communities to being characterized by an international group of scholars for whom the goal of mathematical research and cooperation transcended national boundaries.Yet, the development of an international community was far from smooth and involved obstacles such as war, political upheaval, and national rivalries. Until now, this evolution has been largely overlooked by historians and mathematicians alike. This book addresses the issue by bringing together essays by twenty experts in the history of mathematics who have investigated the genesis of today's international mathematical community. This includes not only developments within component national mathematical communities, such as the growth of societies and journals, but also more wide-ranging political, philosophical, linguistic, and pedagogical issues. The resulting volume is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of modern mathematics. It will be of interest to mathematicians, historians of mathematics, and historians of science in general.

Analysis as an independent subject was created as part of the scientific revolution in the seventeenth century. Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Fermat, Huygens, Newton, and Leibniz, to name but a few, contributed to its genesis. Since the end of the seventeenth century, the historical progress of mathematical analysis has displayed unique vitality and momentum. No other mathematical field has so profoundly influenced the development of modern scientific thinking. Describing this multidimensional historical development requires an in-depth discussion which includes a reconstruction of general trends and an examination of the specific problems.This volume is designed as a collective work of authors who are proven experts in the history of mathematics. It clarifies the conceptual change that analysis underwent during its development while elucidating the influence of specific applications and describing the relevance of biographical and philosophical backgrounds. The first ten chapters of the book outline chronological development and the last three chapters survey the history of differential equations, the calculus of variations, and functional analysis. Special features are a separate chapter on the development of the theory of complex functions in the nineteenth century and two chapters on the influence of physics on analysis.One is about the origins of analytical mechanics, and one treats the development of boundary-value problems of mathematical physics (especially potential theory) in the nineteenth century. The book presents an accurate and very readable account of the history of analysis. Each chapter provides a comprehensive bibliography. Mathematical examples have been carefully chosen so that readers with a modest background in mathematics can follow them. It is suitable for mathematical historians and a general mathematical audience.

This book contains essays on Ramanujan and his work that were written especially for this volume. It also includes important survey articles in areas influenced by Ramanujan's mathematics. Most of the articles in the book are nontechnical, but even those that are more technical contain substantial sections that will engage the general reader. The book opens with the only four existing photographs of Ramanujan, presenting historical accounts of them and information about other people in the photos. This section includes an account of a cryptic family history written by his younger brother, S. Lakshmi Narasimhan. Following are articles on Ramanujan's illness by R. A. Rankin, the British physician D. A. B. Young, and Nobel laureate S. Chandrasekhar. They present a study of his symptoms, a convincing diagnosis of the cause of his death, and a thorough exposition of Ramanujan's life as a patient in English sanitariums and nursing homes.Following this are biographies of S. Janaki (Mrs. Ramanujan) and S. Narayana Iyer, Chief Accountant of the Madras Port Trust Office, who first communicated Ramanujan's work to the "Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society". The last half of the book begins with a section on 'Ramanujan's Manuscripts and Notebooks'. Included is an important article by G. E. Andrews on Ramanujan's lost notebook. The final two sections feature both nontechnical articles, such as Jonathan and Peter Borwein's 'Ramanujan and pi', and more technical articles by Freeman Dyson, Atle Selberg, Richard Askey, and G. N. Watson. This volume complements the book ""Ramanujan: Letters and Commentary, Volume 9"", in the AMS series, "History of Mathematics". For more on Ramanujan, see these AMS publications, "Ramanujan: Twelve Lectures on Subjects Suggested by His Life and Work, Volume 136", "H, and Collected Papers of Srinivasa Ramanujan, Volume 159", "H", in the AMS Chelsea Publishing series.

The editorial board for the History of Mathematics series has selected for this volume a series of translations from two Russian publications, Kolmogorov in Remembrance and Mathematics and its Historical Development. This book, Kolmogorov in Perspective, includes articles written by Kolmogorov's students and colleagues and his personal accounts of shared experiences and lifelong mathematical friendships. Specifically, the article, ""Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov. A Biographical Sketch of His Life and Creative Paths"" by A. N. Shiryaev, gives an excellent personal and scientific biography of Kolmogorov. The volume also includes the following articles: ""On A. N. Kolmogorov"" by V. I. Arnol'd, ""In Memory of A. N. Kolmogorov"" by S. M. Nikol'skii, ""Remembrances of A. N. Kolmogorov"" by Ya. G. Sinai, ""The Influence of Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov on My Life"" by P. L. Ul'yanov, ""A Few Words on A. N. Kolmogorov"" by P. S. Aleksandrov, ""Memories of P. S. Aleksandrov"" by A. N. Kolmogorov, ""Newton a Information for our distributors: Co-published with the London Mathematical Society beginning with Volume 4. Members of the LMS may order directly from the AMS at the AMS member price.The LMS is registered with the Charity Commissioners.

For over two centuries, the work of the St. Petersburg mathematicians in number theory has constituted a glorious contribution to mathematics. The Russian book, ""The St. Petersburg School of Number Theory"", is about the life and work of prominent members of this school, such as Chebyshev, Korkin, Zolotarev, Markov, Voronoi, and Vinogradov. These mathematicians are indeed a very distinguished group. Their work in number theory is of the highest quality and continues to have lasting significance.This English translation acquaints the reader with the most important works of these six eminent members of the St. Petersburg school. A short biography is given for each of them, followed by an exposition of some of his most significant contributions. Each contribution features the author's original terminology and notation and is followed by commentary. Certain works receive relatively complete expositions, while others are dealt with more briefly. With a Foreword written for the English edition, this volume will appeal to a broad mathematical audience, including mathematical historians. It is particularly suitable for graduate students and researchers interested in number theory.

Georg Cantor, the founder of set theory, published his last paper on sets in 1897. In 1900, David Hilbert made Cantor's Continuum Problem and the challenge of well-ordering the real numbers the first problem of his famous lecture at the International Congress in Paris. Thus, as the nineteenth century came to a close and the twentieth century began, Cantor's work was finally receiving its due and Hilbert had made one of Cantor's most important conjectures his number one problem.It was time for the second generation of Cantorians to emerge. Foremost among this group were Ernst Zermelo and Felix Hausdorff. Zermelo isolated the Choice Principle, proved that every set could be well-ordered, and axiomatized the concept of set. He became the father of abstract set theory. Hausdorff eschewed foundations and developed set theory as a branch of mathematics worthy of study in its own right, capable of supporting both general topology and measure theory. He is recognized as the era's leading Cantorian. Hausdorff published seven articles in set theory during the period 1901-1909, mostly about ordered sets.This volume contains translations of these papers with accompanying introductory essays. They are highly accessible, historically significant works, important not only for set theory, but also for model theory, analysis and algebra. This book is suitable for graduate students and researchers interested in set theory and the history of mathematics. Also available from the AMS by Felix Hausdorff are the classic works, Grundzuge der Mengenlehre (Volume 61) and Set Theory (Volume 119), in the AMS Chelsea Publishing series.

When I was invited to speak at the conference on the history of analysis given at Rice University [in 1977], I decided that it might be interesting to review the history of mathematics and physics in the last three hundred years or so with heavy emphasis on those parts in which harmonic analysis had played a decisive or at least a major role. I was pleased and somewhat astonished to find how much of both subjects could be included under this rubric ...The picture that gradually emerged as the various details fell into place was one that I found very beautiful, and the process of seeing it do so left me in an almost constant state of euphoria. I would like to believe that others can be led to see this picture by reading my paper, and to facilitate this I have included a large number of short expositions of topics which are not widely understood by non-specialists. --from the Preface This volume, containing the paper mentioned above as well as five other reprinted papers by Mackey, presents a sweeping view of the importance, utility, and beauty of harmonic analysis and its connections to other areas of mathematics and science. A seventh paper, written exclusively for this volume, attempts to unify certain themes that emerged after major discoveries in 1967 and 1968 in the areas of Lie algebras, strong interaction physics, statistical mechanics, and nonlinear partial differential equations--discoveries that may at first glance appear to be independent, but which are in fact deeply interrelated. Information for our distributors: Copublished with the London Mathematical Society beginning with volume 4. Members of the LMS may order directly from the AMS at the AMS member price. The LMS is registered with the Charity Commissioners.

The life of Vito Volterra, one of the finest scientists and mathematicians Italy ever produced, spans the period from the unification of the Italian peninsula in 1860 to the onset of the Second World War--an era of unparalleled progress and unprecedented turmoil in the history of Europe. Born into an Italian Jewish family in the year of the liberation of Italy's Jewish ghettos, Volterra was barely in his twenties when he made his name as a mathematician and took his place as a leading light in Italy's modern scientific renaissance. By his early forties, he was a world-renowned mathematician, a sought-after figure in European intellectual and social circles, the undisputed head of Italy's mathematics and physics school--and still living with his mother, who decided the time was ripe to arrange his marriage. When Italy entered World War I in 1915, the fifty-five-year-old Volterra served with distinction and verve as a lieutenant and did not put on civilian clothes again until the Armistice of 1918. This book, based in part on unpublished personal letters and interviews, traces the extraordinary life and times of one of Europe's foremost scientists and mathematicians, from his teenage struggles to avoid the stifling life of a ""respectable"" bank clerk in Florence, to his seminal mathematical work--which today influences fields as diverse as economics, physics, and ecology--and from his spirited support of Italy's scientific and democratic institutions during his years as an Italian Senator, to his steadfast defiance of the Fascists and Mussolini. In recounting the life of this outstanding scientist, European Jewish intellectual, committed Italian patriot, and devoted if frequently distracted family man, The Volterra Chronicles depicts a remarkable individual in a prodigious age and takes the reader on a vivid and splendidly detailed historical journey.

This book contains a translation and study of ""Euclid's Phaenomena"", a work which once formed part of the mathematical training of astronomers from Central Asia to Western Europe. Included is an introduction that sets Euclid's geometry of the celestial sphere, and its application to the astronomy of his day, into its historical context for readers not already familiar with it. So no knowledge of astronomy or advanced mathematics is necessary for an understanding of the work. The book shows mathematical astronomy shortly before the invention of trigonometry, which allowed the calculation of exact results and the subsequent composition of ""Ptolemy's Almagest"".""The Phaenomena"" itself begins with an introduction (possibly not by Euclid) followed by eighteen propositions set out in geometrical style about how arcs of the zodiacal circle move across the sky. The astronomical application is to the small arc of that circle occupied by the Sun, but the Sun is not mentioned. This work and the (roughly) contemporaneous treatises of Autolycus and Aristarchos form a corpus of the oldest extant works on mathematical astronomy. Together with ""Euclid's Optics"", one has the beginnings of the history of science as an application of mathematics.

Emil Artin was one of the great mathematicians of the twentieth century. He had the rare distinction of having solved two of the famous problems posed by David Hilbert in 1900. He showed that every positive definite rational function of several variables was a sum of squares. He also discovered and proved the Artin reciprocity law, the culmination of over a century and a half of progress in algebraic number theory. Artin had a great influence on the development of mathematics in his time, both by means of his many contributions to research and by the high level and excellence of his teaching and expository writing. In this volume we gather together in one place a selection of his writings wherein the reader can learn some beautiful mathematics as seen through the eyes of a true master. The volume's Introduction provides a short biographical sketch of Emil Artin, followed by an introduction to the books and papers included in the volume. The reader will first find three of Artin's short books, titled The Gamma Function, Galois Theory, and Theory of Algebraic Numbers, respectively. These are followed by papers on algebra, algebraic number theory, real fields, braid groups, and complex and functional analysis. The three papers on real fields have been translated into English for the first time. The flavor of these works is best captured by the following quote of Richard Brauer. ""There are a number of books and sets of lecture notes by Emil Artin. Each of them presents a novel approach. There are always new ideas and new results. It was a compulsion for him to present each argument in its purest form, to replace computation by conceptual arguments, to strip the theory of unnecessary ballast. What was the decisive point for him was to show the beauty of the subject to the reader."" Information for our distributors: Copublished with the London Mathematical Society beginning with Volume 4. Members of the LMS may order directly from the AMS at the AMS member price. The LMS is registered with the Charity Commissioners.

Social reformer, banker, and mathematician, Olinde Rodrigues is a fascinating figure of nineteenth-century Paris. Information about him is obscure--scattered in publications on history, mathematics, and the social sciences--and often inaccurate. Rodrigues left no papers or archives. Here, for the first time, is an authoritative account of his family history, education, and important mathematical works. Written by a team of prominent mathematicians and historians, the book comprises the interests and associations that make Rodrigues such a remarkable character in the history of mathematics. This is a superb panorama of nineteenth-century France, portrayed through the life and work of Olinde Rodrigues.The beginning chapters attempt to recreate the scientific and social background of nineteenth-century Paris and Rodrigues's place in it. The following chapters discuss his contributions to a variety of mathematical fields (e.g., orthogonal polynomials, combinatorics, and rotations). The final chapters discuss contemporary reactions to his mathematical work. Sufficient background is given to make it accessible to readers familiar with basic college mathematics. The book is suitable for specialists in the history of mathematics and/or science, graduate students, and mathematicians. Co-published with the London Mathematical Society beginning with Volume 4.

This volume contains articles on the history of Soviet mathematics, many of which are personal accounts by mathematicians who witnessed and contributed to the turbulent and glorious years of Moscow mathematics. The articles in the book focus on mathematical developments in that era, the personal lives of Russian mathematicians, and political events that shaped the course of scientific work in the Soviet Union. Important contributions include an article about Luzin and his school, based in part on documents that were released only after perestroika, and two articles on Kolmogorov. The volume concludes with annotated bibliographies in English and Russian for further reading. The revised edition is appended by an article of Tikhomirov, which provides an update and general overview of 20th-century Moscow mathematics, and it also includes an Index of Names. This book should appeal to mathematicians, historians, and anyone else interested in Soviet mathematical history. Information for our distributors: Co-published with the London Mathematical Society beginning with Volume 4. Members of the LMS may order directly from the AMS at the AMS member price. The LMS is registered with the Charity Commissioners.

The theory of complex dynamics, whose roots lie in 19th-century studies of the iteration of complex function conducted by Koenigs, Schoder, and others, flourished remarkably during the first half of the 20th century, when many of the central ideas and techniques of the subject developed. This book by Alexander, Iavernaro, and Rosa paints a robust picture of the field of complex dynamics between 1906 and 1942 through detailed discussions of the work of Fatou, Julia, Siegel, and several others. A recurrent theme of the authors' treatment is the center problem in complex dynamics. They present its complete history during this period and, in so doing, bring out analogies between complex dynamics and the study of differential equations, in particular, the problem of stability in Hamiltonian systems. Among these analogies are the use of iteration and problems involving small divisors which the authors examine in the work of Poincare and others, linking them to complex dynamics, principally via the work of Samuel Lattes, in the early 1900s, and Jurgen Moser, in the 1960s. Many details will be new to the reader, such as a history of Lattes functions (functions whose Julia set equals the Riemann sphere), complex dynamics in the United States around the time of World War I, a survey of complex dynamics around the world in the 1920s and 1930s, a discussion of the dynamical programs of Fatou and Julia during the 1920s, and biographical material on several key figures. The book contains graphical renderings of many of the mathematical objects the authors discuss, including some of the intriguing fractals Fatou and Julia studied, and concludes with several appendices by current researchers in complex dynamics which collectively attest to the impact of the work of Fatou, Julia, and others upon the present-day study.

Henri Poincare (1854-1912) was one of the greatest scientists of his time, perhaps the last one to have mastered and expanded almost all areas in mathematics and theoretical physics. He created new mathematical branches, such as algebraic topology, dynamical systems, and automorphic functions, and he opened the way to complex analysis with several variables and to the modern approach to asymptotic expansions. He revolutionized celestial mechanics, discovering deterministic chaos. In physics, he is one of the fathers of special relativity, and his work in the philosophy of sciences is illuminating. For this book, about twenty world experts were asked to present one part of Poincare's extraordinary work. Each chapter treats one theme, presenting Poincare's approach, and achievements, along with examples of recent applications and some current prospects. Their contributions emphasize the power and modernity of the work of Poincare, an inexhaustible source of inspiration for researchers, as illustrated by the Fields Medal awarded in 2006 to Grigori perelman for his proof of the Poincare conjecture stated a century before. This book can be read by anyone with a master's (even a bachelor's) degree in mathematics, or physics, or more generally by anyone who likes mathematical and physical ideas. Rather than presenting detailed proofs, the main ideas are explained, and a bibliography is provided for those who wish to understand the technical details.

The papers in this book chronicle Henri Poincaré's journey in algebraic topology between 1892 and 1904, from his discovery of the fundamental group to his formulation of the Poincaré conjecture. For the first time in English translation, one can follow every step (and occasional stumble) along the way, with the help of translator John Stillwell's introduction and editorial comments. Now that the Poincaré conjecture has finally been proved, by Grigory Perelman, it seems timely to collect the papers that form the background to this famous conjecture. Poincaré's papers are in fact the first draft of algebraic topology, introducing its main subject matter (manifolds) and basic concepts (homotopy and homology). All mathematicians interested in topology and its history will enjoy this book.

Algebra, as a subdiscipline of mathematics, arguably has a history going back some 4000 years to ancient Mesopotamia. The history, however, of what is recognized today as high school algebra is much shorter, extending back to the sixteenth century, while the history of what practicing mathematicians call ""modern algebra"" is even shorter still. The present volume provides a glimpse into the complicated and often convoluted history of this latter conception of algebra by juxtaposing twelve episodes in the evolution of modern algebra from the early nineteenth-century work of Charles Babbage on functional equations to Alexandre Grothendieck's mid-twentieth-century metaphor of a ``rising sea'' in his categorical approach to algebraic geometry. In addition to considering the technical development of various aspects of algebraic thought, the historians of modern algebra whose work is united in this volume explore such themes as the changing aims and organization of the subject as well as the often complex lines of mathematical communication within and across national boundaries. Among the specific algebraic ideas considered are the concept of divisibility and the introduction of non-commutative algebras into the study of number theory and the emergence of algebraic geometry in the twentieth century. The resulting volume is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of modern mathematics in general and modern algebra in particular. It will be of particular interest to mathematicians and historians of mathematics.

This book is the first English translation of the classic long paper Theorie der algebraischen Functionen einer Veranderlichen (Theory of algebraic functions of one variable), published by Dedekind and Weber in 1882. The translation has been enriched by a Translator's Introduction that provides historical background, and extensive commentary embedded in the translation itself. The translation, introduction, and commentary provide the first easy access to this important paper for a wide mathematical audience: students, historians of mathematics, and professional mathematicians. Why is the Dedekind-Weber paper important? In the 1850s, Riemann initiated a revolution in algebraic geometry by interpreting algebraic curves as surfaces covering the sphere. He obtained deep and striking results in pure algebra by intuitive arguments about surfaces and their topology. However, Riemann's arguments were not rigorous, and they remained in limbo until 1882, when Dedekind and Weber put them on a sound foundation. The key to this breakthrough was to develop the theory of algebraic functions in analogy with Dedekind's theory of algebraic numbers, where the concept of ideal plays a central role. By introducing such concepts into the theory of algebraic curves, Dedekind and Weber paved the way for modern algebraic geometry.

The fame of the Polish school at Lvov rests with the diverse and fundamental contributions of Polish mathematicians working there during the interwar years. In particular, despite material hardship and without a notable mathematical tradition, the school made major contributions to what is now called functional analysis. The results and names of Banach, Kac, Kuratowski, Mazur, Nikodym, Orlicz, Schauder, Sierpinski, Steinhaus, and Ulam, among others, now appear in all the standard textbooks.The vibrant joie de vivre and singular ambience of Lvov's once scintillating social scene are evocatively recaptured in personal recollections. The heyday of the famous Scottish Cafe - unquestionably the most mathematically productive cafeteria of all time - and its precious Scottish Book of highly influential problems are described in detail, revealing the special synergy of scholarship and camaraderie that permanently elevated Polish mathematics from utter obscurity to global prominence.This chronicle of the Lvov school - its legacy and the tumultuous historical events which defined its lifespan - will appeal equally to mathematicians, historians, or general readers seeking a cultural and institutional overview of key aspects of twentieth-century Polish mathematics not described anywhere else in the extant English-language literature.