[Math] Books about history of recent mathematics

booksho.history-overview

I draw on this question to ask something that has always been a pet peeve of mine. It is very easy to find books about the history of mathematics, much less so if one wants books about the recent (say > 1850) one.

Of course I know that this is difficult because not so many people would understand what's going on; to learn about the history of a subject, one should better know the subject beforehand. On the other hand, my feeling is that more or less all mathematics I know has been developed after 1850, and the growth, like in many other sciences, has been exponential. So the amount of mathematics which appears in history book seems negligible to me.

Can you point me to any good resources about the recent history of maths?

Best Answer

Here are a few books on the history of recent mathematics that I recommend:

A History of Algebraic and Differential Topology, 1900 - 1960 by Jean Dieudonne.

History of Topology by I.M. James.

Reciprocity Laws: From Euler to Eisenstein by Franz Lemmermeyer.

The Shaping of Arithmetic after C.F. Gauss's Disquisitiones Arithmeticae
by Catherine Goldstein, Norbert Schappacher, and Joachim Schwermer.

The Mathematical Coloring Book: Mathematics of Coloring and the Colorful Life of its Creators by Alexander Soifer.