This is the classic
resource on the history of math providing a deeper understanding of the subject
and how it has impacted our culture, all in one essential volume. The
subject-matter of this book is a historical summary of the development of
mathematics, illustrated by the lives and discoveries of those to whom the
progress of the science is mainly due. It may serve as an introduction to more
elaborate works on the subject, but primarily it is intended to give a short and
popular account of those leading facts in the history of mathematics which many
who are unwilling, or have not the time, to study it systematically may yet
desire to know.
Levi
Leonard Conant was an American mathematician specializing in trigonometry. The
title of this work might lead the reader to suppose that it is principally
mathematical, but the treatment adopted by the anthropological. It is a study
of the evolution of the idea of number in primitive conditions and the
survivals of early forms in later stages of culture.