This is a beautiful, important book, a pleasure to read, in which the history recounted truly illuminates the mathematical ideas, and the ideas themselves are superbly explained; a wonderful accomplishment.
-- Barry Mazur, Harvard University
Designed for students just beginning their study of the discipline, this concise introductory history of mathematics is supplemented by brief but in-depth sketches of the more important individual topics. Covering such subjects as algebra symbols, negative numbers, the metric system, quadratic equations, and much more, this widely adopted work invites and encourages further study of mathematics.
