Geometry by Its History

Alexander Ostermann has published numerous research articles as well as several books with Springer. He is a professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Gerhard Wanner is the former President of Section VII of the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences, former Head of Department of Mathematics at the University of Geneva, and former President of the Swiss Mathematical Society. He is the author of several books with Springer, including Analysis by its History, written together with Ernst Hairer.

• Preface.- Part I: Classical Geometry.- Thales and Pythagoras.- The Elements of Euclid.- Conic Sections.- Further Results on Euclidean Geometry.- Trigonometry.- Part II: Analytic Geometry.- Descartes' Geometry.- Cartesian Coordinates.- To be Constructible, or not to be.- Spatial Geometry and Vector Algebra.- Matrices and Linear Mappings.- Projective Geometry.- Solutions to Exercises.-  References.- Figure Source and Copyright.- Index.

From the book reviews: Choice - Outstanding Academic Title in 2012 "This is an excellent, challenging textbook as well as a valuable resource for historical information, problems, and student projects. The historical content is broad based, comprehensive, and reliable. Each chapter has extensive exercises, many taken directly from or based on historical sources ... . Hints and solutions for all problems are given in an appendix. Thorough bibliography. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above." (C. A. Gorini, Choice, Vol. 50 (3), November, 2012) "The book under review is a treasure chest of interesting theorems and problems in geometry together with their illuminating histories. ... This is the kind of book that one would enjoy browsing through and reading while sitting relaxedly in an armchair without any paper or pencil and starting at almost any page or paragraph. It should be on the shelf of every lover of geometry." (Mowaffaq Hajja, zbMATH, Vol. 1288, 2014) "This book belongs on the bookshelf of every geometer. ... The authors have penned their book with students of geometry as well as science in mind. In fact, the book would serve well as a second year mathematics course in a classical liberal arts setting. ... the book treats many interesting and beautiful problems, introducing powerful concepts along the way, and yet is written at a level suitable for an introductory course of geometry or even advanced mathematics." (Alan S. McRae, Mathematical Reviews, February, 2013) "There is a lot of interesting material in this book, supplemented by a lot of very nice artwork and many interesting exercises ... . I would think that any other college instructor ... with an interest in geometry would also want a copy on his or her shelf." (Mark Hunacek, The Mathematical Association of America, June, 2012)