I read "The Housekeeper and the Professor" by Yoko Ogawa several years ago, and as a longtime lover of all things math, I was fascinated by the connections and patterns in the world of math and numbers. This book in like the history and science behind the story in the "The Housekeeper and the Professor" and I loved every single word. I already want to read it again so I can soak up even more.

I've got mixed feelings on this one. The blurb was fairly dramatic, almost conspiratorial, claiming that mathematical history was skewed towards white male contributions. I ignored the rhetoric because I did want to read about others' contributions, and that's mostly what I got. The first half of the book follows early mathematical history fairly well, filling in some gaps on early activities that aren't always covered in standard history books. The last half, however, cherry-picked a few women and minorities to focus on, and that's where the historical thread fell apart for me. It's hard as a reader to construct a history in your head when you only have a few examples that popped up here and there. How do they fit into the bigger picture?

The authors were more balanced than the blurb writer about their approach, showing some restraint as they introduced lesser-known figures. They really had to stretch in some cases, as one-off instances of someone working a problem that didn't yield results and wasn't followed up is hard to classify as history. It's interesting, of course, but it's hard to make too much of it in the big scheme of things.

I just reread that, and it sounds more negative than I intended. The big is worth a quick read, especially the first half, but there are other histories available that should cover the territory in more depth. It's an OK read and I finished it, so no regrets there. This can be one of the "unknown history" books you can read, but it shouldn't be the only one.

Do you know who Madhava of Sangamagrama, founder of a school in Kerala, India in the 14th century, is? I didn’t think so. He may be the first person to have developed a theory of calculus; yes, before Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz in the 17th century. Why is Madhava not the recognized originator of the theory? Perhaps, it came too early; perhaps, it was not complete or perfect. Throughout history, most likely in all the sciences, there are forgotten men and women. In the field of mathematics, the focus of this book, many of those men and women were simply repressed, discouraged, and/or forbidden in the society in which they lived. This book is an attempt at bringing to light, a few of the many mathematicians who changed the world, and at the same time inspire a new generation of people to break down the limitations a society places on them due to race, gender, cultural identity, language, and continue to reach for what they know would make the world a better place.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

This book is about the historical people, events, civilizations, and cultures giving rise to mathematical systems, mathematical discoveries, uses for mathematics. There are some examples of numbers or numerical methods of solving problems, but that’s not the book’s focus.

A discussion of the pre-historic use of numbers and ways of marking them is discussed, and the various numerical systems used by ancient civilizations, through the common era, even into the recent past and present, and how those differ. Much of the difference has to do with culture, worldview, and mythology or religion. In several instances, the leaders of a predominant religion made decrees against mathematics since it didn’t fit with the belief of those leaders.

Although mathematics is universal, it’s astounding the amount of racism, sexism, classism, and economic-status has held promising mathematicians back. There are women, blacks, former-slave, and poor people who’ve overcome these obstacles and became great mathematicians. There are still disparities in the number of women who get PhDs in statistics or mathematics vs their male counterparts, although in most fields of study it’s close to even.

Before electronic computers, a "computer" was a person who figured numbers by hand or with an adding machine. This took a tremendous number of people who were almost all women. They are the people who made everything from missiles to rockets work, and even chemistry and biology.

The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Hidden History of Mathematics gives a glimpse into the global history of mathematics, but it focuses on lesser-known (secret) stories and characters. It is very impressive, how the authors managed to cover such a long period, so many events in about 300 pages. I wish the book was two times or even three times as long, to get more details.

I especially appreciated putting the history of mathematics in the context of global history and politics. The authors are very clear about which events are well-documented, which things are believed to be true, and what is (most probably) just a myth.

The concepts are very well explained for non-experts.