This is the first truly comprehensive and thorough history of the development of a mathematical community in the United States and Canada. This second volume starts at the turn of the twentieth century with a mathematical community that is firmly established and traces its growth over the next forty years, at the end of which the American mathematical community is pre-eminent in the world. In the preface to the first volume of this work Zitarelli reveals his animating philosophy, “I find that the human factor lends life and vitality to any subject.” History of mathematics, in the Zitarelli conception, is not just a collection of abstract ideas and their development. It is a community of people and practices joining together to understand, perpetuate, and advance those ideas and each other. Telling the story of mathematics means telling the stories of these people: their accomplishments and triumphs; the institutions and structures they built; their interpersonal and scientific interactions; and their failures and shortcomings. One of the most hopeful developments of the period 1900–1941 in American mathematics was the opening of the community to previously excluded populations. Increasing numbers of women were welcomed into mathematics, many of whom―including Anna Pell Wheeler, Olive Hazlett, and Mayme Logsdon―are profiled in these pages. Black mathematicians were often systemically excluded during this period, but, in spite of the obstacles, Elbert Frank Cox, Dudley Woodard, David Blackwell, and others built careers of significant accomplishment that are described here. The effect on the substantial community of European immigrants is detailed through the stories of dozens of individuals. In clear and compelling prose Zitarelli, Dumbaugh, and Kennedy spin a tale accessible to experts, general readers, and anyone interested in the history of science in North America.
Author(s): David E. Zitarelli, Della Dumbaugh, Stephen F. Kennedy
Series: AMS/MAA Spectrum
Publisher: American Mathematical Society
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 564
City: Providence
Cover
Title page
Copyright
Contents
Preface
Permissions and credits
Part IV. Consolidation and Growth, 1900–1930
Introduction to Part IV
Chapter 8. Establishment: 1900–1914
8.1. Moore Mob, II
8.2. Bringing Hilbert to America
8.3. AMS Summer Meeting, 1904
8.4. Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis
8.5. University of Missouri and Washington University* in St. Louis
8.6. Princeton and Harvard
8.7. International Congresses of Mathematicians
8.8. Specialties
8.9. Yale and Calculus Textbooks
8.10. Concluding Thoughts: Holding Pattern
Chapter 9. Wartime, 1914–1920
9.1. MAA
9.2. World War I
9.3. Cryptology
9.4. Point Set Topology and the R.L. Moore School
9.5. Chinese Students in the US
9.6. Concluding Thoughts: Increasing Professionalization
Chapter 10. The Roaring Twenties
10.1. Departments
10.2. The Community
10.3. Concluding Thoughts: Diffusing from the Centers
Chapter 11. More Roaring Twenties
11.1. Black American Pioneers
11.2. Research in Canada
11.3. Fields Medal
11.4. NRC Fellowships
11.5. American Mathematical Society
11.6. Mathematics Buildings
11.7. Concluding Thoughts: Building a Mathematical Enterprise
Transition 1930: Albert vs. Hasse
11.8. Albert and Hasse, I
11.9. Albert and Hasse, II
Part V. Internationalization,1930–1941
Introduction to Part V
Historical Background
Chapter 12. The Institute for Advanced Study and Algebra in America
12.1. The Institute for Advanced Study
12.2. Noether and Modern Algebra
12.3. Artin and Modern Algebra
12.4. Brauer: Algebras and Canada
12.5. Concluding Thoughts: The Foundation for the Vision
Chapter 13. Émigré Applied Mathematicians
13.1. Applied Mathematics—Courant and NYU
13.2. Aerodynamics—von Kármán and Caltech
13.3. Statistics—Neyman and Berkeley
13.4. Mechanics—von Mises
13.5. Influence of Émigrés
13.6. Concluding Thoughts: A Great Reservoir of Talent
Chapter 14. The Thirties
14.1. Logic in the 1930s
14.2. Alonzo Church
14.3. Logical Figures
14.4. Turing and Computers
14.5. Hassler Whitney and Topology
14.6. Statistics
14.7. Bridging Calculus and Engineering
14.8. Two Special Meetings
14.9. The Years 1938 and 1939
14.10. Employment Picture in the 1930s
14.11. Putnam Competition
14.12. Concluding Thoughts: A Growing Discipline
Afterword: The Aggregate of Everyday Contributions
Bibliography
Index
Copyright (continued)
Back Cover
