Robin Wilson's Reading List

"There have been several biographies of Euler. Some have concentrated on his life without attempting to come to grips with his mathematical contributions. Others, written mainly for mathematics students, have been more mathematical in nature and don’t give a thorough or accurate idea of his life. Ron Calinger’s substantial book of over 650 pages aims to introduce the reader to both aspects, and is full of useful and interesting material. For some time I’ve been working on a much shorter book about Euler, designed to present both the biography and the mathematics to an interested general public. Calinger’s book is a most useful reference work for this purpose, and I certainly recommend it as the book on Euler for anyone interested in finding out more about this fascinating mathematician."

"I once attended a lecture by Dirk Struik, delivered with great clarity and without notes – a remarkable performance, given that the speaker was then 104 years old! Although there are many fine books on the history of mathematics, such as the excellent texts of Victor Katz (‘History of Mathematics: An Introduction’) and David Burton (‘The History of Mathematics’), I’ve always had a soft spot for Struik’s down-to-earth and straightforward paperback, which first appeared in 1948 and which I regard as a classic. Indeed, when I once taught a history of mathematics course in the USA, I was both surprised and delighted when some students declared that they preferred it to the fuller and more up-to-date treatments of the subject to be found in more recent works."

"The history of mathematics can be studied and taught in different ways. In the past many people took the traditional ‘who-did-what-and-when?’ approach, but more recently there’s been an increased emphasis on putting mathematics into the context of the time. This was the approach taken by the Open University’s pioneering course MA290: ‘Topics in the History of Mathematics’, which ran from 1987 to 2007, and which was heavily based on translated original source material from this source book, edited by two distinguished members of the course team. Over the years there have been several good source books in the history of mathematics, but I particularly like this one, especially for the earlier material, and another one called ‘Mathematics Emerging’ by Jacqueline Stedall, covering the period from 1540 to 1900. Many courses on the history of mathematics describe what mathematical results have been discovered, but the student has little chance to explore these discoveries ‘from the inside’. A good source book provides a wide range of original sources (usually in translation and edited as necessary) which enable us to see the problems solved in the context of their time. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . Let me give you a couple of examples. First, the origin of quadratic equations. It’s all very well to say that a Mesopotamian (Babylonian) clay tablet 4000 years ago ‘solved these equations’ (a statement that’s regularly heard), but until students work through the statements of the problems and the details of the calculations on the tablet, they don’t really understand exactly what problems were being solved, and why, and what form the solution took. Second, when undergraduate students first study mathematical analysis (sometimes described as ‘calculus done properly’), they often find it difficult to see the need for introducing the particular technicalities involved (such as ‘epsilons and deltas’). Looking at the original works of such mathematicians as D’Alembert, Cauchy, and Bolzano, helps us to understand how and why this particular approach arose. Other reasons for studying original sources are that they’re fun to try to sort out, and that they provide contextual interest for students learning the material in their mathematics courses. Jackie Stedall’s source book, ‘Mathematics Emerging’, in particular, reproduces the original works as they first appeared, followed by a translation into English (where needed) and a commentary."

"Charles Dodgson is better known as ‘ Lewis Carroll ’ the author of the ‘Alice’ books, and also as one of the best photographers of the Victorian era than as a mathematician. But his day job for 25 years was as a lecturer in mathematics at Christ Church. Oxford. as I explain in my book Lewis Carroll in Numberland , which written for a general audience and is one of the books I’ve most enjoyed writing, Dodgson’s mathematical work covers several different areas. He was a great expert on, and enthusiast for, Euclid’s geometry, spending much of his time in teaching it to undergraduates and championing it in his popular book Euclid and his Modern Rivals . Get the weekly Five Books newsletter Dodgson was also keen on algebra, writing an innovative book on the theory of determinants, and one of his main ideas has become a topic of current research. He always enjoyed introducing his ideas on symbolic logic to adults and children alike. And he was a pioneer in the theory of voting, on which he made substantial contributions which we would do well to adopt today. A supporter of proportional representation, he illustrated the deficiencies in our first-past-the-post and other voting systems, and his studies would have usefully informed the ‘alternative vote’ discussions in Britain a few years ago. His mathematical work in all of these areas is the basis of a multi-authored volume which I’m currently in the process of editing. I chose this book of Mathematical Pamphlets because it includes a wide range of his mathematical writings and gives one a good idea of his approach to the subject. It is also a fun book to dip into!"

"I first came across this book more than fifty years ago when I was still at school. It introduced me to a world of ‘fun’ mathematics, such as the different types of tessellation (tiling), the nets for making polyhedra, the sketching of interesting curves, and much else besides. It proved particularly valuable when I had to organise speech-day mathematical exhibitions for the visiting school parents. Even now, I sometimes go back and re-read it just for fun – and if mathematics isn’t fun, then it’s not worth doing!"