- Paperback: 656 pages
- Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (Sep 25 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0471393401
- ISBN-13: 978-0471393405
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 22.4 x 4.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.4 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#506,384 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #54 in Books > Science > Mathematics > Number Systems
- #54 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Mathematics > Number Systems
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
For those of you who have read Georges Ifrah's first book, The Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer, this is the third of a two-volume set! Just to clarify this, the first volume is being split into two and, together with this new third volume, republished as a trilogy. For those of you who have not read the first book, volume III begins with what could have been a very useful "Chronological Summary" and a "Recapitulation" of the ideas expressed in the first book. Unfortunately, without a preface or introduction, the unwary reader is immediately confronted with a very condensed version of the first book. Indeed, Ifrah's detailed study of number systems, when reduced to a series of illustrated plates, gives the impression that the history of numbers is little more than a history of typography. Yet another "Chronological Summary" from Calculation to Calculus follows, thereby reinforcing the feeling that the book is a collection of notes waiting to be crafted into a strong narrative. The translator, the unsung hero in many publications, has done sterling work in adding copious notes and helpful cross-references. The initial feeling remains, however, that this is a collection of jewels without a crown.
Having said that, the scope of the book is enormous, tracing the history of calculators and computers, from mechanical to electronic devices through both analogue and digital incarnations. There are some familiar faces, such as Pascal, Babbage, von Neumann and Turing, as well as many others who have so far escaped the spotlight. As a reference work it has a good index and an extensive bibliography. The author acknowledges regret at the lack of illustrations but gives references to such sources. In the search for universality and completeness it has, however, forsaken a strong guiding theme. The most engaging sections are where the mathematics, history and technology come together, bound by personal ambitions, whether intellectual or financial. In such sections Ifrah pauses from being a cataloguer to indulge in some story telling. It is here that the nuts and bolts of technology come to life. For teachers, students and researchers, this will prove to be a very useful starting point into a fascinating area of human innovation. But one would venture that this is a work destined for the library shelves rather than the bedside table. --Richard Mankiewicz --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
Ifrahs monumental follow-up to From One to Zero (1993) goes from one to (almost) infinity as he meticulously reviews the numbers and reckoning systems of countless tribes and cultures in a dazzling scholarly performance. ``Performance'' is the operative word here, for not only does Ifrah enumerate the words and symbols used for arithmetic, but he also explains how to use each system, providing illustrations, diagrams, riddles, and puzzles. Indeed, nearly every page displays handsome numerals, counting devices, and illustrations of their use. Ifrah takes the human body as the aboriginal point of reference for most counting systemsfingers and toes producing systems using 5, 10, or 20 as a base. But 12, 60, and 360 have also been used, usually by cultures that attached more importance to the sky than to their anatomy. Ifrah gives special credit to the Mayans for their extraordinary adeptness at astronomical measurements, which calculated the length of the solar year as 365.242 days and the month at 29.53086 days. He commends India for the invention of zerothe placeholder in counting systems that use positional notation to indicate the different values, for instance, of 1, 10, and 100. A recurring theme is the intimate relation between number systems and written language. Just as the invention of alphabets allows the generation of myriad words, advanced number systems can use a limited number of symbols to represent any large number. A quibble or two: Ifrah frequently asserts that our brains cannot instantly number a collection of more than four objects, though psychologists maintain we can recognize up to seven objects without counting. And since many statements on the origins of systems and borrowings across cultures are speculative, they are subject to change in light of recent discoveries. A must for any libraryand a wonderful gift for anthropologists, ethnographers, cultural historians, and quiz kids. (Over 150 b&w drawings) (Book-of-the-Month Club selection; History Book Club selection; Quality Paperback Book Club selection) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
There must have been a time when nobody knew how to count. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
There must have been a time when nobody knew how to count. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great book to browse through,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer (Hardcover)
I was intrigued enough by Mr. Peterson's review here to look at the review by Dauben that he mentions. My conclusion is that the Dauben review should be treated with a grain of salt. It's not particularly balanced. In some of the criticism of Ifrah from people with more degrees than he has, one gets just a whiff of jealousy that the reviewers didn't have the endurance to write the book themselves.If they had, I doubt they would have done any better of a job. Ifrah's book isn't perfect, but one can't expect such a book to be. This book is huge, folks. Ifrah is only one human being who tried to synthesize dozens of fields in none of which he could expect to become an expert. I think he did his best and I find his writing style companionable. Of course he makes errors, but he says a lot more things very well. We should be mindful of the book's limitations. But we also have to be grateful for what Ifrah managed to do.
2.0 out of 5 stars
A deception?,
By Richard Peterson (Sacramento, California) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer (Hardcover)
This book is getting raves from intelligent readers who are notexperts in the history of numbers. But it sure isn't getting good reviews from experts. A group of scholars in France was disturbed by the uncritical popularity of the French edition, and released a report calling the French edition "historically unacceptable, a deception." [Bulletin de l'Association des Professeurs de Mathematiques de l'Enseignement Publique 399 June 1995)] (I got this quote from Joseph Dauben's book review.) More recently, in the January 2002 and February 2002 issues of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, Joseph Dauben of Lehman College at CUNY critiqued the English tranlations of this book and its companion, "The Universal History of Computing." Professor Dauben consulted a number of experts in specialties such as the history of Arabic mathematics, Hindu mathematics, Mesopotamian mathematics, Chinese mathematics, and Mayan mathematics. His review is skeptical. I'll quote various lines from Dauben's January review: "...he[Ifrah]either wrote to the wrong experts, was indifferent to their responses, or was not prepared to settle for their inconclusive results and the tentative nature of their research." "...Ifrah offers nothing but certainties." (when writing about "[James]Ritter simply declares all of this to be false, due to an erroneous conflation of sources. First of all, he takes Ifrah's list to be a contrived amalgamation of names coming from Read Professor Dauben's review. Afterwards, George Ifrah's fun-to-read, plausible book won't count for as much.
5.0 out of 5 stars
5000 years in the fascinating story of numbers,
By Burak Eldem (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews
This review is from: THE UNIVERSAL HISTORY OF NUMBERS III: THE COMPUTER AND THE INFORMATION REVOLUTION (Paperback)
One day, the young "devils" in a high school's mathematics class in France, asked some "plain" questions to their teacher: "When the numbers were invented?", "What is the history of the number Zero?", "How the ancients began writing down symbols for the numbers?" and so on... And these questions, changed the life of Georges Ifrah, the mathematics teacher in our story. He began his long voyage in the history of numbers and mathematics, through all mysterious ancient civilizations."Universal History of Numbers" is a huge, marvellous, fascinating story which deals with the birth of essential concepts in numbering systems in our distant past. Ifrah chases the clues in ancient sumerians hexagesymal system; the magical hieroglyphes of ancient Egyptians; the mysterious Maya and their counting system; Hebrew, Greek and Roman numbers with the mystics of "gematria"; sacred numerical signs of ancient Indus civilization and China, and much much more. This is not just a "history of numbers"; Ifrah's work is a brilliant study on the roots of our civilization. While dealing with the numbers, he also presents us a perfect panorama of ancient cultures, such as the Maya calendar, the Vedic philosophy, Ancient Sumerian myths or the stories of Egyptian gods, in a very entertaining style. If you are interested with the roots of civilization and "ancient wisdom", you must read this excellent book - you'll never regret.
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