Algebra is abstract mathematics - let us make no bones about it - yet it is also applied mathematics in its best and purest form. It is not abstraction for its own sake, but abstraction for the sake of efficiency, power and insight. Algebra emerged from the struggle to solve concrete, physical problems in geometry, and succeeded after 2000 years of failure by other forms of mathematics. It did this by exposing the mathematical structure of geometry, and by providing the tools to analyse it. This is typical of the way algebra is applied; it is the best and purest form of application because it...

A beautiful and relatively elementary account of a part of mathematics where three main fields - algebra, analysis and geometry - meet. The book provides a broad view of these subjects at the level of calculus, without being a calculus book. Its roots are in arithmetic and geometry, the two opposite poles of mathematics, and the source of historic conceptual conflict. The resolution of this conflict, and its role in the development of mathematics, is one of the main stories in the book. Stillwell has chosen an array of exciting and worthwhile topics and elegantly combines mathematical history...

From a review of the second edition:

"This book covers many interesting topics not usually covered in a present day undergraduate course, as well as certain basic topics such as the development of the calculus and the solution of polynomial equations. The fact that the topics are introduced in their historical contexts will enable students to better appreciate and understand the mathematical ideas involved...If one constructs a list of topics central to a history course, then they would closely resemble those chosen here."

(David Parrott, Australian Mathematical Society)

This book...

Significant changes have occured in the structural composition and geographical distribu tion of the populations of North West European countries during the 1970's and 1980's. Whilst the subject matter of this volume reflects many of the important themes of research activity that have preoccupied British and Dutch spatial demographers and population geographers over the last decade, the structure of the book aims to facilitate comparison of those selected themes between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The book has gradually taken shape over the period of time since the conference in...