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Title: The Universal History of Numbers : From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer by Georges Ifrah ISBN: 0-471-39340-1 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 22 September, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (6 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: A deception?
Comment: This book is getting raves from intelligent readers who are not
experts 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
the Hindu-Arabic number system)
"[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
all epochs." (James Ritter is an Assyriologist at Universite de Paris VIII, the quote is about Ifrah's conclusions about Sumerian numbers.)
Read Professor Dauben's review. Afterwards, George Ifrah's fun-to-read, plausible book won't count for as much.
Rating: 5
Summary: 5000 years in the fascinating story of numbers
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: Absolutely Astounding
Comment: This book is a treasure beyond measure. Truly a history of mankind traced through numbers, starting with the dispersion of mankind at Babel. The dedication of this author is astounding, and his ability to assemble the tremendous amount of research into this work is worthy of some medal or prize of some sort. Surly God gave this man an unusual mind to present to the world such a work. I can't find the words to adequately describe this awesome and monumental work. Well done is not enough. Thank you Georges Ifrah.
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Title: The Universal History of Computing: From the Abacus to the Quantum Computer by Georges Ifrah ISBN: 0471441473 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 15 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The History of Counting by Denise Schmandt-Besserat, Michael Hays ISBN: 0688141188 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 25 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.99 |
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Title: The Mystery of Numbers (Oxford Paperbacks) by Annemarie Schimmel, Franz Carl Mysterium Der Zahl Endres ISBN: 0195089197 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: March, 1994 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: The Exact Sciences in Antiquity by O. Neugebauer ISBN: 0486223329 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1969 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: From One to Zero: A Universal History of Numbers by Georges Ifrah, George Ifrah ISBN: 0670373958 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: October, 1985 List Price(USD): $9.98 |
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