"This is necessarily a very heavily mathematical book, which nevertheless manages to balance the need for such detail with an awareness of the historical context - great effort appears to have been taken, for example, to ensure that Cartan's mathematics is interpreted on his terms, rather than in a modern way. The referencing throughout is sufficiently detailed to enable the reader to follow up on any points of interest, and a comprehensive index makes the book easy to navigate. This is an extremely valuable contribution to the study of the history of modern mathematics." --Zentralblatt Math
1. Lie on the backstage2. Cartan's doctoral dissertation3. Infinite Continuous Groups 1883-19024. Exterior Differential Systems5. Cartan's Theory (1902-1909)6. The method of moving frames7. The geometry of continuous groups8. Conclusion
Alberto Cogliati, currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Mathematics 'F. Enriques' of the Università degli Studi di Milano. He received his PhD in March 2012 discussing Cartan's structural approach to the theory of continuous groups of transformations. His main research interest is the history of 19th-20th mathematics, especially differential geometry, the history of Lie groups and the theory of connections.
