Critics Corner

Reviews of books, websites, poster sets, movies, and other resources for learning and teaching the history of mathematics.

Measuring America

The beginnings of land measurement in the early United States and how this affected American democracy.

Benjamin Banneker

Poster of Banneker, with a brief description of his life and work.

Hypatia of Alexandria: Mathematician and Martyr

A biography of Hypatia in her times, which carefully distinguishes between the known facts of her life and the many speculations about her.

Abel's Proof

A discussion of the meaning of mathematical unsolvability in the context of the history of Abel's proof of the unsolvability of the quintic equation in terms of radicals.

Mathematical Works Printed in the Americas, 1554-1700

A bibliographical reference to mathematics books printed in the new world before 1700.

From Calculus to Computers

A collection of articles on using the history of mathematics of the past 200 years in the undergraduate classroom.

Review of De grands defis mathematiques d'Euclide a Condorcet

Nine examples of using history in the mathematics classroom -- for those who read French!

The Equation that Couldn't Be Solved

A history of attempts to solve cubic and higher degree polynomial equations, including the notions of group theory and their relationship to the idea of symmetry.

History of Mathematics

Boyer's classic text, as revised by Uta Merzbach, is still worth having.

A Concise History of Mathematics

The classic work by Dirk Struik is still worth reading, especially for its attention to the social context of the development of mathematical ideas.