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A Historian Looks Back: The Calculus as Algebra and Selected Writings
About this Title
Judith V. Grabiner, Pitzer College
Publication: Spectrum
Publication Year:
2010; Volume 64
ISBNs: 978-0-88385-572-0 (print); 978-1-61444-506-7 (online)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5948/UPO9781614445067
MathSciNet review: 2724809
MSC: Primary 01A50; Secondary 01A55
Table of Contents
Front/Back Matter
Chapters
The Calculus as Algebra
- Preface to the Garland Edition
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1. The Development of Lagrange’s Ideas on the Calculus: 1754–1797
- Chapter 2. The Algebraic Background of the Theory of Analytic Functions
- Chapter 3. The Contents of the Fonctions Analytiques
- Chapter 4. From Proof-Technique to Definition: The Pre-History of Delta-Epsilon Methods
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
Selected Writings
- Chapter 1. The Mathematician, the Historian, and the History of Mathematics
- Chapter 2. Who Gave You the Epsilon? Cauchy and the Origins of Rigorous Calculus
- Chapter 3. The Changing Concept of Change: The Derivative from Fermat to Weierstrass
- Chapter 4. The Centrality of Mathematics in the History of Western Thought
- Chapter 5. Descartes and Problem-Solving
- Chapter 6. The Calculus as Algebra, the Calculus as Geometry: Lagrange, Maclaurin, and Their Legacy
- Chapter 7. Was Newton’s Calculus a Dead End? The Continental Influence of Maclaurin’s Treatise of Fluxions
- Chapter 8. Newton, Maclaurin, and the Authority of Mathematics
- Chapter 9. Why Should Historical Truth Matter to Mathematicians? Dispelling Myths while Promoting Maths
- Chapter 10. Why Did Lagrange “Prove” the Parallel Postulate?