Claremont, Calif. (December 13, 2010) — Pitzer College Professor of Mathematics Judith V. Grabiner, PhD has authored A Historian Looks Back: The Calculus as Algebra and Selected Writings published by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).
Judith Grabiner has written extensively on the history of mathematics. This collection, highlights the benefits of studying the development of mathematical ideas and the relationship between culture and mathematics.
A large part of the book—Part I—is The Calculus as Algebra: J.-L. Lagrange, 1736–1813 (Garland Publishing, 1990), which focuses on Lagrange’s pioneering effort to reduce the calculus to algebra.
Ten articles—Part II—span a range of other mathematical topics, including widely held myths about the history of mathematics and the work of such mathematicians as Cauchy, Descartes, Newton and Maclaurin. Seven of these articles won awards from the MAA for expository excellence.
Grabiner is a four-time MAA’s Lester R. Ford Award winner, having won the prize in 1984, 1998, 2005 and 2010. She is also the author of The Origins of Cauchy’s Rigorous Calculus (M.I.T. Press, 1981.)
For more information about A Historian Looks Back: The Calculus as Algebra and Selected Writings, please visit: https://www.maa.org/pubs/cagh.html
