Publication details
Duel at Dawn: Heroes, Martyrs, and the Rise of Modern Mathematics by Amir Alexander
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2011 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | The Mathematical Intelligencer |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | http://www.springerlink.com/openurl.asp?genre=article&id=doi:10.1007/s00283-011-9208-5 |
| Field | General mathematics |
| Keywords | review; history of mathematics; Enlightenment mathematics; Romantic mathematics |
| Description | The author reviews the book "Duel at Dawn: Heroes, Martyrs, and the Rise of Modern Mathematics" by Amir Alexander, 2010. Alexander examines the lives of several mathematicians (namely Jean le Rond d’Alembert, Évariste Galois, Niels Henrik Abel, Augustin-Louis Cauchy, and János Bolyai), compares them to the stories written about them, draws attention to the differences, and looks for the reasons why particular authors attributed special characteristics to their personalities. He develops the argument that the changes in the content of mathematical research go hand in hand with the appearance of a new persona characterizing a mathematician. |