God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History

God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History | Stephen Hawking | Needs an editor

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God Created the In...

	God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History Stephen Hawking Running Press, 2007 - 1376 pages average customer review:based on 28 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Special, but Missing Some

I've only had this book a month and inasmuch as it's encyclopedic in what it does cover, I cannot write anything at all comprehensive. I haven't read my entire Britannica either. I can only be very impressed with the book's selections and its thoroughness in presenting some very special mathematicians, both their lives and their ideas. There's not much attempt to balance the presentations. The chapter on Boole is long, the chapter on Riemann is short.

I wonder, however, how Hawking could omit Galois, the youngster who invented modern algebra, and Euler, the most prolific of analysts, both of whose developments had great influence on modern physics.

The book would benefit with an index.

Should you put it on your reference shelf? Yes.

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Needs an editor

This book contains surprisingly many grammatical and spelling errors, as well as errors in the equations. If these occurred only in the editor's prologue to each paper, it might be overlooked. But the errors also pervade the papers themselves. These errors are extremely distracting, and often obfuscating.

Interesting, but mediocre

I do not regret spending $30 on this text, but I feel it is not worth the money.

There are a few fundamental problems with the book.

First, Someone is only going to buy a book this nerdy if they are really into the subject. If they're really into the subject, they will probably want the full texts, not highlighted excerpts. Highlighted excerpts are handy as a reference, but since there is no index, this cannot be considered a reference book.

Second - it's nice that these works have Hawking's Seal of Approval, but the fact that Hawking has is name on this seems like nothing more than a marketing ploy. Most people buy Hawking's books because he makes a difficult subject easy. This being a collection of others' work makes me think that the publishers used Hawking's reputation to move copies.

Third - no index. That's ridiculous for a book like this.

Overall, I'm happy with the book, but I think it fails because it hovers between a reference book and a historical collection.

If you're serious about studying the subjects covered, I would suggest spending your money on the Dover edition of what you're looking for. Buy this book if you're an enthusiast and want some stimulating reading.

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He could have done something new...

Stephen Hawking seems to like the limelight. Hey--if I had ALS, maybe I'd be willing to steal other peoples' ideas and not give them credit, too. No, come to think of it, I woudln't.

Some years ago, William Dunham wrote and exceedingly unusual and charming book, Journey Through Genius. It was a collection of famous theorems, their proofs, a slice of life of the time, often lemmas and corrolaries, etc. A unique gem, it stood out among other books that challenge the busy, but modern mind. I had to read it with a notepad next to me--I didn't always believe it until I proved it myself.

And now guess who discovered the great idea but the incessantly novel Mr. Hawking! Had he limited his treatments to mathematicians that Dunham hadn't covered, maybe there would be an excuse, but in several cases, e.g., Kantor's transfinite numbers, he just duplicates it.

I gave this 3 stars because, if it had stood alone, it would have been good. I took away stars because it was just this side of plagiarism.

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Could have done more on applications

Hawking, as always, gives a nice, clear, and readable historical perspective with good stories and illustrative proofs. The book would have been enhanced with more attention to: 1) applications in medicine, economics, science and engineering; and 2) a move into numerical or computational methods, now so important in modern research and practice. But perhaps, that will be yet another book in itself.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6

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