Which is a good book on math History?
I want to give it as a gift to a mathematician.
Which is a good book on math History?
I want to give it as a gift to a mathematician.
Though not strictly a history book, The Princeton Companion to Mathematics is a book I'd like to get as a gift but probably wouldn't buy.
"Mathematics and its History", by John Stillwell.
http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Its-History-Undergraduate-Texts/dp/144196052X
"Men of mathematics", by Eric Temple bell- awesome set of biographies of mathematicians from Archimedes to Poincare.
http://www.archive.org/details/MenOfMathematics
Leonard Dickson's "History of number theory".
http://www.archive.org/details/historyoftheoryo01dick
"A beautiful mind" by Sylvia Nasar, a biography of John Nash, but gives VERY good glimpses of Math and its History esp. during 20th century.
http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Mind-Mathematical-Genius-Laureate/dp/0743224574
I enjoyed reading the biographies of Hilbert and Courant by Constance Reid very much.
I read Journey Through Genius a while ago and I absolutely loved it. Highly recommended.