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 | | A History of Mathematics: An Introduction (2nd Edition) (Katz Series) by Victor J. Katz ISBN-10: 0321016181 ISBN-10: 0-321-01618-1 ISBN-13: 9780321016188 ISBN-13: 978-0-321-01618-8 Paperback 1998-03-06 Addison Wesley Find Lowest Price |
Reviews | ||
reprehensibly bad I'll try not say anything too disruptive. (Nevertheless, an official range of love it to hate it seems to say it's more than okay to just let the emotions rip.) This is just the sort of technical history that William Berkson would call out as "a pack of lies." For a much more historically accurate and far less shallow take on this topic, i highly recommend Luke Hodgkin's a history of mathematics. (Also why in the world would Mathematical Review ever publish a review of Hodgkin's book by Katz?!?! When I read Katz's review of Hodgkin, I felt immediatly uncomfortable since there is the very real possibility of Katz having the motivation to do all in his power to rid the marketplace of any competitor.) | ||
clear and informative While this subject may be very boring, this book is clear and concise and walks the reader through the development of modern mathematics. It isn't exactly chronological and instead chooses to follow a subject based time line. A solid purchase for those students who have utterly confusing professors. | ||
Excellent, will buy again! The book is in immaculate condition and the shipping was very fast. Very pleased and will definitely buy again. | ||
That's because it's a HISTORY book (and good one!) It's probably bad form to write a review of a review, but I was a little chapped at reading a previous reader's complaint that this book wasn't well suited for teaching mathematics. That's sort of like complaining that your microwave oven doesn't also play DVD's; it wasn't INTENDED to do that, and this book wasn't intended to be a math text - it's a HISTORY of mathematics, just like the title says (duh). The many fine points of the text have already been discussed in previous reviews. The single drawback of the book is its price, which might put it beyond reach of some who would like to own it. However, it certainly is worth the bucks, as it's probably the best historical overview of mathematics to be found. | ||
a good history book, a bad mathematics book there have been glowing reviews for this text but i do not think they accurately reflect the book in its entirety. that is to say, that yes, as a history book, this is a good reference book with a lot of information. however, as a book to teach students about mathematics, it falls far from even being decent. the text is poorly laid out, often fudging the exactness of crucial definitions, with the finer details being left to the reader to figure out in each chapters example problems. the chapter problems in general require a much greater of mathematics than the book is willing to give and do not build very well upon one another. good for reading about the history, but if you're trying to learn the math behind it, you may just wind up very, very frustrated. | ||