UREM-ULB :
Unité de Recherche sur l’Enseignement des Mathématiques

An Episodic History of Mathematics

Mathematical Culture through Problem Solving

by Steven G. Krantz

http://www.math.wustl.edu/ sk/books/newhist.pdf

Extraits de la préface
 « Together with philosophy, mathematics is the oldest academic discipline known to mankind. Today mathematics is a huge and complex
enterprise, far beyond the ken of any one individual. Those of us who
choose to study the subject can only choose a piece of it, and in the end
must specialize rather drastically in order to make any contribution to
the evolution of ideas. »
 « The purpose of this book, then, is to acquaint the student with
mathematical language and mathematical life by means of a number of
historically important mathematical vignettes. And, as has already been
noted, the book will also serve to help the prospective school teacher to
become inured in some of the important ideas of mathematics—both
classical and modern. »
 « The focus in this text is on doing—getting involved with the mathematics and solving problems. This book is unabashedly mathematical :
The history is primarily a device for feeding the reader some doses of
mathematical meat. In the course of reading this book, the neophyte
will become involved with mathematics by working on the same problems that Zeno and Pythagoras and Descartes and Fermat and Riemann
worked on. This is a book to be read with pencil and paper in hand, and
a calculator or computer close by. The student will want to experiment,
to try things, to become a part of the mathematical process. »