Description
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson is best known for his 'Alice' books, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, written under his pen name of Lewis Carroll. Yet, whilst lauded for his work in children's fiction and his pioneering work in the world of Victorian photography, his everyday job was a lecturer in Mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford University. The Mathematical World of Charles L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) explores the academic background behind this complex individual, outlining his mathematical life, describing his writings in geometry, algebra, logic, the theory of voting, and recreational mathematics, before going on to discuss his mathematical legacy. This is the first academic work that collects the research on Dodgson's wide-ranging mathematical achievements into a single practical volume. Much material appears here for the first time, such as Dodgson's personal letters and drawings, as well as the results of recent investigations into the life and work of Dodgson. Complementing this are many illustrations, both historical and explanatory, as well as a full mathematical bibliography of Dodgson's mathematical publications.
About the Author
Robin Wilson is an Emeritus Professor of Pure Mathematics at the Open University, Emeritus Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London, and a former Fellow of Keble College, Oxford University. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. A former President of the British Society for the History of Mathematics, he has written and edited over 40 books on the history of mathematics, including Lewis Carroll in Numberland, and also on combinatorics and graph theory. Involved with the popularization and communication of mathematics and its history, he has been awarded prizes by the Mathematical Association of America for his 'outstanding expository writing', and the Stanton Medal for outreach activities in combinatorics by the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications. Amirouche Moktefi is a Lecturer in Philosophy at Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. He is member of the Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance, Estonia, and is associated with the Archives Henri Poincare - Philosophy and Researches on Sciences and Technologies in France. His areas of interest include the history of mathematics and logic and the philosophy of visual reasoning. He has extensively published on Dodgson's mathematics and logic.
Reviews
The Mathematical World of Charles L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) is an important contribution to the vast literature on Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll. It is the first academic work that collects the research on Dodgson's wide-ranging mathematical achievements into a single practical volume. * The Mathematical Intelligencer *
Wilson and Mokte 's volume will be the standard work on Dodgson's mathematics for many years to come. * Mark McCartney, Senior lecturer in mathematics. University of Ulster, London Mathematical Society *
...this is a great volume, highlighting an aspect of Charles L Dodgson's life not familiar to the broader public. It is well accessible to non-specialists with its contextualization of the topics treated and its elementary examples, but with its many puzzles and riddles sometimes also challenging even for experts. Numerous illustrations, above all portraits and reproductions from manuscripts, invite the reader to dig deeper. * Volker Peckhaus, British Journal for the History of Mathematics *
A truly beautiful publication on the mathematical work of Lewis Carroll. * Thomas Sonar, zbMATH *
The book is beautifully typeset with many photographs and prints - it has all the charm of a coffee table book, and yet it also manages to be learned and scholarly in its approach, never sacrificing accuracy in the name of accessibility. It is full of delightful anecdotesas well as lucid discussion of complex mathematical theory. * Sara L. Uckelman, British Society for Literature and Science / Lewis Carroll Review *
This is not a coffee table book about Lewis Carroll, but a scholarly textbook containing the latest research outlining and assessing his contribution to mathematics ... This is very well researched and very well written ... providing an excellent and critical summary of his mathematical works. * Phil Dyke, Mathematics Today *
This book completes a survey of the life and work of a mathematician that is in many ways the opposite of the light-hearted Lewis Carroll... This nicely edited book with many illustrations and written by experts on the subject will certainly allow you to form a proper opinion about Charles Dodgson. * Adhemar Bultheel, European Mathematical Society *
It is a book that introduces and explains the most fundamental ideas that underpin our discipline, but crucially it does so in a way that the author has carefully thought through with a view to making these understandable to the reader. * Michael Gove, London Mathematical Society *
Book Information
ISBN 9780198817000
Author Robin Wilson
Format Hardback
Page Count 282
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 792g
Dimensions(mm) 249mm * 196mm * 23mm
About the Author
Robin Wilson is an Emeritus Professor of Pure Mathematics at the Open University, Emeritus Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London, and a former Fellow of Keble College, Oxford University. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. A former President of the British Society for the History of Mathematics, he has written and edited over 40 books on the history of mathematics, including Lewis Carroll in Numberland, and also on combinatorics and graph theory. Involved with the popularization and communication of mathematics and its history, he has been awarded prizes by the Mathematical Association of America for his 'outstanding expository writing', and the Stanton Medal for outreach activities in combinatorics by the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications. Amirouche Moktefi is a Lecturer in Philosophy at Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. He is member of the Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance, Estonia, and is associated with the Archives Henri Poincare - Philosophy and Researches on Sciences and Technologies in France. His areas of interest include the history of mathematics and logic and the philosophy of visual reasoning. He has extensively published on Dodgson's mathematics and logic.
Reviews
The Mathematical World of Charles L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) is an important contribution to the vast literature on Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll. It is the first academic work that collects the research on Dodgson's wide-ranging mathematical achievements into a single practical volume. * The Mathematical Intelligencer *
Wilson and Mokte 's volume will be the standard work on Dodgson's mathematics for many years to come. * Mark McCartney, Senior lecturer in mathematics. University of Ulster, London Mathematical Society *
...this is a great volume, highlighting an aspect of Charles L Dodgson's life not familiar to the broader public. It is well accessible to non-specialists with its contextualization of the topics treated and its elementary examples, but with its many puzzles and riddles sometimes also challenging even for experts. Numerous illustrations, above all portraits and reproductions from manuscripts, invite the reader to dig deeper. * Volker Peckhaus, British Journal for the History of Mathematics *
A truly beautiful publication on the mathematical work of Lewis Carroll. * Thomas Sonar, zbMATH *
The book is beautifully typeset with many photographs and prints - it has all the charm of a coffee table book, and yet it also manages to be learned and scholarly in its approach, never sacrificing accuracy in the name of accessibility. It is full of delightful anecdotesas well as lucid discussion of complex mathematical theory. * Sara L. Uckelman, British Society for Literature and Science / Lewis Carroll Review *
This is not a coffee table book about Lewis Carroll, but a scholarly textbook containing the latest research outlining and assessing his contribution to mathematics ... This is very well researched and very well written ... providing an excellent and critical summary of his mathematical works. * Phil Dyke, Mathematics Today *
This book completes a survey of the life and work of a mathematician that is in many ways the opposite of the light-hearted Lewis Carroll... This nicely edited book with many illustrations and written by experts on the subject will certainly allow you to form a proper opinion about Charles Dodgson. * Adhemar Bultheel, European Mathematical Society *
It is a book that introduces and explains the most fundamental ideas that underpin our discipline, but crucially it does so in a way that the author has carefully thought through with a view to making these understandable to the reader. * Michael Gove, London Mathematical Society *
Book Information
ISBN 9780198817000
Author Robin Wilson
Format Hardback
Page Count 282
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 792g
Dimensions(mm) 249mm * 196mm * 23mm
