Mathematics in Victorian Britain

Raymond Flood is Emeritus Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford where, prior to this, he was Vice President. He has worked as a university lecturer in Computing Studies and Mathematics at the Department for Continuing Education, Oxford University and was president of the British Society for the History of Mathematics. Adrian Rice is Professor of Mathematics at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, where his research focuses on 19th-century and early 20th-century British mathematics. He is a two-time recipient of the Mathematical Association of America's Tevor Evans Award for outstanding expository writing.Robin Wilson is Emeritus Professor of Pure Mathematics at the Open University, formerly Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London, a former fellow of Keble College, Oxford, and president-elect of the British Society for the History of Mathematics. He is involved with the popularization and communication of mathematics and its history, and in 2005 was awarded a Pólya prize by the Mathematical Association of America for outstanding expository writing. He was formerly Editor-in-Chief of the European Mathematical Society's Newsletter and Chair of the Committee on Raising Public Awareness of Mathematics.

• Foreword by Adam Hart-Davis ; Introduction ; 1. Cambridge: the rise and fall of the mathematical tripos ; 2. Mathematics in Victorian Oxford: a tale of three professors ; 3. Mathematics in the metropolis: a survey of Victorian London ; 4. Scotland: land of opportunity but few rewards ; 5. Taking root: Mathematics in Victorian Ireland ; 6. Wranglers in Exile: mathematics in the British Empire ; 7. A voice for mathematics: Victorian mathematical journals and societies ; 8. Victorian 'applied mathematics' ; 9. Victorian astronomy: the age of the 'Grand Amateur' ; 10. Calculating engines: machines, mathematics, and misconceptions ; 11. Vital statistics: the measurement of public health ; 12. Darwinian variation and the creation of mathematical statistics ; 13. Instruction in the calculus and differential equations in Victorian and Edwardian Britain ; 14. Geometry: the Euclid debate ; 15. Victorian algebra: the freedom to create new mathematical entities ; 16. Victorian logic: from Whately to Russell ; 17. Combinatorics: a very Victorian recreation ; 18. Overstating their case? Reflections on British pure mathematics in the 19th century

Mathematics in Victorian Britain is one of the most enjoyable books that I have had the pleasure of reading. In both senses of the word, it is most certainly unputdownable.