3000 years of analysis. History, cultures, people (Q5894025)

There is no general history of mathematics for all times, there are only many histories written in different times and their particular characters depend on what is interesting at the time, i.e., whether the story told enunciates new truths. This new book belongs to a series of books on the history of mathematics which has been published by W. H. Alten and others in the last decade. The volumes of this series are made to emphasize the relation between mathematics and cultural history. The books are addressed at a general readership with college level mathematical background and some mathematical interest. The volumes edited already (general history, algebra, geometry) are richly illustrated; the volume under review has about 430 illustrations, partly in color. The author of this book is a working mathematician with very extensive historical interests and who has given lectures on the history of mathematics too. This fact by itself makes the book interesting for historians of mathematics. In eleven chapters the author deals with questions like: What is analysis?, What are infinitesimally small and large quantities? What are indivisibles and infinitesimals? What are real numbers? What is a continuum? What is continuity and differentiability? What are differentials and integrals? The leitmotif of Sonar's book is the concept of infinity. Consequently Sonar starts with ancient Greek philosophy (problem and kind of continuum) and concludes with an excellent and informative survey on non-standard analysis (NSA) of our time (infinitesimals in NSA). The author includes also Cantor's set theory although Cantor rejected the infinitesimally small as an ugly and dangerous bacillus. Although Sonar restricts himself strictly speaking to analysis it is surprising how many topics are dealt with in about 700 pages. For example, we find the birth of the calculus of variations described (the brachistochrone problem) which is important for the function concept as well as sections on differential equations or differential geometry and, of course, some paragraphs on functional analysis. By the way, in each chapter we find some exercises. Moreover, we have further references on 15 pages. This is a very readable book written in a lively and fresh style. The mathematical topics are embedded in a natural way in the general history. I recommend you put the book on your shelf in easy reach.