Publisher's Synopsis
Thirty-eight experts from ten countries have critically annotated a selection of the literature within their respective specialties in the history of mathematics. The result is a comprehensive guide designed as a starting point for anyone wishing to learn more about any area of the history of mathematics. The 4,800 entries are arranged by subject, and each includes full bibliographical information. Annotations and introductory notes provide evaluation and context to help a user decide where to go next. As mathematics has had a long and rich history, the study of that history is broad ranging. This guide covers the history framed in all time periods and regions of the world beginning with the ancient Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, Islamic, Indian, African, and Mesopotamian civilizations. It focuses on the branches of mathematics but necessarily gives substantial attention to the relationship mathematics has had with navigation, mapmaking, logic, philosophy, computing, and all the branches of physics. It also devotes special sections to such topics as institutions, societies, women in mathematics, and how mathematics has been taught. The success of the first edition in print showed the value of such a guide. It covered the literature up to 1982 and was published in 1985. This revised and updated edition, still very selective, has twice as many entries as the first, reflecting the enormous growth in the literature since that time. And the CD-ROM format makes navigating and searching the bibliography easier and faster. The CD-ROM's content is in PDF format with bookmarks, enabling browsers to link from the table of contents directly to sections of interest. Links from the author and subject index items to individual entries enable users to go directly to specific items of interest. AdobeAcrobatReader 4.0 with Search, provided for Macintosh, Windows, and UNIX, makes it possible for users to search text throughout the CD using PDF: the search term is highlighted, and you can move from hit to hit across files. This edition is unique in that it also offers a listing of World Wide Web resources, and live links within the text to selected Web sites. Overall, this revised edition of The History of Mathematics from Antiquity to the Present: A Selective Annotated Bibliography on CD-ROM now makes it easier for both browsers and researchers to locate and search for the extended number of cited works that have been selected and annotated for this bibliography. Adobe and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.
