This time-honored study by one of the 20th century's foremost scholars and interpreters of the history and meaning of mathematics surveys the role of mathematics in civilization. It describes clearly the main principles, methods, and theories of mathematics that have survived from 4000 B.C. to 1945. 1945 edition.
Eric Temple Bell (1883–1960) was born in Scotland, studied mathematics at universities in the United States, and taught at the University of Washington and the California Institute of Technology. He wrote several books on the history of mathematics, including another Dover title, The Magic of Numbers. He also wrote many science-fiction novels under the pseudonym John Taine.