Recollections of a Jewish Mathematician in Germany
Recollections of a Jewish Mathematician in Germany

Author: Abraham A. Fraenkel

Publisher: Birkhäuser

Published: 2016-10-21

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 3319308475

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Abraham A. Fraenkel was a world-renowned mathematician in pre–Second World War Germany, whose work on set theory was fundamental to the development of modern mathematics. A friend of Albert Einstein, he knew many of the era’s acclaimed mathematicians personally. He moved to Israel (then Palestine under the British Mandate) in the early 1930s. In his autobiography Fraenkel describes his early years growing up as an Orthodox Jew in Germany and his development as a mathematician at the beginning of the twentieth century. ​This memoir, originally written in German in the 1960s, has now been translated into English, with an additional chapter covering the period from 1933 until his death in 1965 written by the editor, Jiska Cohen-Mansfield. Fraenkel describes the world of mathematics in Germany in the first half of the twentieth century, its origins and development, the systems influencing it, and its demise. He also paints a unique picture of the complex struggles within the world of Orthodox Jewry in Germany. In his personal life, Fraenkel merged these two worlds during periods of turmoil including the two world wars and the establishment of the state of Israel. Including a new foreword by Menachem Magidor Foreword to the 1967 German edition by Yehoshua Bar-Hillel

In Hitler's Munich
In Hitler's Munich

Author: Michael Brenner

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2022-03-22

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 0691191034

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"In 1935, Adolf Hitler declared Munich the "Capital of the Movement." It was here that he developed his anti-Semitic beliefs and founded the Nazi party. Though Hitler's immediate milieu during the 1910s and 1920s has received ample attention, this book argues that the Munich of this period is worthy of study in its own right and that the changes the city underwent between 1918 and 1923 are absolutely crucial for understanding the rise of antisemitism and eventually Nazism in Germany. Before 1918, Munich had a decidedly cosmopolitan flavor, but its open atmosphere was shattered by the November Revolution of 1918-19. Jews were prominently represented among many of the European revolutions of the late 1910s and early 1920s, but nowhere did Jewish revolutionaries and government representatives appear in such high numbers as in Munich. The link between Jews and communist revolutionaries was especially strong in the minds of the city's residents. In the aftermath of the revolution and the short-lived Socialist regime that followed, the Jews of Munich experienced a massive backlash. The book unearths the story of Munich as ground zero for the racist and reactionary German Right, revealing how this came about and what it meant for those who lived through it"--

Development Of Mathematics Between The World Wars, The: Case Studies, Examples And Analyses
Development Of Mathematics Between The World Wars, The: Case Studies, Examples And Analyses

Author: Martina Becvarova

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2021-05-14

Total Pages: 623

ISBN-13: 1786349329

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The Development of Mathematics Between the World Wars traces the transformation of scientific life within mathematical communities during the interwar period in Central and Eastern Europe, specifically in Germany, Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Throughout the book, in-depth mathematical analyses and examples are included for the benefit of the reader.World War I heavily affected academic life. In European countries, many talented researchers and students were killed in action and scientific activities were halted to resume only in the postwar years. However, this inhibition turned out to be a catalyst for the birth of a new generation of mathematicians, for the emergence of new ideas and theories and for the surprising creation of new and outstanding scientific schools.The final four chapters are not restricted to Central and Eastern Europe and deal with the development of mathematics between World War I and World War II. After describing the general state of mathematics at the end of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century, three case studies dealing with selected mathematical disciplines are presented (set theory, potential theory, combinatorics), in a way accessible to a broad audience of mathematicians as well as historians of mathematics.

“Dig Where You Stand” 7
“Dig Where You Stand” 7

Author: Kristín Bjarnadóttir

Publisher: WTM-Verlag Münster

Published: 2023-10-31

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 3959872569

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The history of mathematics education is an interdisciplinary research area that is experiencing a significant development and this book presents recent work in this area. This book is the result of the seventh conference ICHME (International Conference on the History of Mathematics Education) that took place at Erbacher Hof, Mainz (Germany) from 19th to 23rd of September 2022. Nowadays, the history of education is of the utmost importance for assessing the general development of the educational system(s) in which mathematics education occurs. Usually, the history of education is confined to history within a given civilization, country or nation. However, the quality of the research for a given nation is enhanced when situated among various specific cases, and comparative studies provide essential tools to broaden the perspectives to an international level. Moreover, mathematics, as a school discipline, has always functioned at the crossroads between general education and professional training, thus relating its teaching history to professional working environments as well. The 24 chapters in this book reflect this wide area of research.

The Best Writing on Mathematics 2018
The Best Writing on Mathematics 2018

Author: Mircea Pitici

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2018-12-04

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 0691188726

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The year’s finest mathematical writing from around the world This annual anthology brings together the year’s finest mathematics writing from around the world. Featuring promising new voices alongside some of the foremost names in the field, The Best Writing on Mathematics 2018 makes available to a wide audience many pieces not easily found anywhere else—and you don’t need to be a mathematician to enjoy them. These essays delve into the history, philosophy, teaching, and everyday aspects of math, offering surprising insights into its nature, meaning, and practice—and taking readers behind the scenes of today’s hottest mathematical debates. James Grime shows how to build subtly mischievous dice for playing slightly unfair games and Michael Barany traces how our appreciation of the societal importance of mathematics has developed since World War II. In other essays, Francis Su extolls the inherent values of learning, doing, and sharing mathematics, and Margaret Wertheim takes us on a mathematical exploration of the mind and the world—with glimpses at science, philosophy, music, art, and even crocheting. And there’s much, much more. In addition to presenting the year’s most memorable math writing, this must-have anthology includes an introduction by the editor and a bibliography of other notable pieces on mathematics. This is a must-read for anyone interested in where math has taken us—and where it is headed.

Felix Klein
Felix Klein

Author: Renate Tobies

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-06-23

Total Pages: 677

ISBN-13: 3030757854

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About Felix Klein, the famous Greek mathematician Constantin Carathéodory once said: “It is only by illuminating him from all angles that one can come to understand his significance.” The author of this biography has done just this. A detailed study of original sources has made it possible to uncover new connections; to create a more precise representation of this important mathematician, scientific organizer, and educational reformer; and to identify misconceptions. Because of his edition of Julius Plücker’s work on line geometry and due to his own contributions to non-Euclidean geometry, Klein was already well known abroad before he received his first full professorship at the age of 23. By exchanging ideas with his most important cooperation partner, the Norwegian Sophus Lie, Klein formulated his Erlangen Program. Various other visionary programs followed, in which Klein involved mathematicians from Germany and abroad. Klein was the most active promoter of Riemann’s geometric-physical approach to function theory, but he also integrated the analytical approaches of the Weierstrass school into his arsenal of methods. Klein was a citizen of the world who repeatedly travelled to France, Great Britain, Italy, the United States, and elsewhere. Despite what has often been claimed, it must be emphasized that Klein expressly opposed national chauvinism. He promoted mathematically gifted individuals regardless of their nationality, religion, or gender. Many of his works have been translated into English, French, Italian, Russian, and other languages; more than 300 supporters from around the world made it possible for his portrait to be painted by the prominent impressionist Max Liebermann. Inspired by international developments, Klein paved the way for women to work in the field of mathematics. He was instrumental in reforming mathematical education, and he endorsed an understanding of mathematics that affirmed its cultural importance as well as its fundamental significance to scientific and technological progress.

Hilbert, Göttingen and the Development of Modern Mathematics
Hilbert, Göttingen and the Development of Modern Mathematics

Author: Joan Roselló

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2019-02-01

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 152752762X

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David Hilbert is one of the outstanding mathematicians of the twentieth century and probably the most influential. This book highlights Hilbert’s contributions to mathematics, putting them in their historical, social and cultural context. In doing so, particular attention is paid to Hilbert’s axiomatic method and his proposal for the foundations of mathematics, the so-called Hilbert’s program. The book also discusses the development of algebraic number theory, the theory of integral equations, modern algebra and the structural image of mathematics. In addition, it considers the famous list of Mathematical Problems presented in Paris in 1900, the mathematical tradition of the University of Göttingen, the great debate on the foundations of mathematics in the twenties between formalists and intuitionists, and, finally, Hilbert’s work on the theory of relativity and the foundations of quantum mechanics. The book will primarily appeal to an academic audience, although it will also be of interest to general-interest science readers.

Agnon’s Story
Agnon’s Story

Author: Avner Falk

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-10-22

Total Pages: 773

ISBN-13: 9004367780

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Agnon’s Story is the first complete psychoanalytic biography of the Nobel-Prize-winning Hebrew writer S.Y. Agnon. It investigates the hidden links between his stories and his biography. Agnon was deeply ambivalent about the most important emotional “objects” of his life, in particular his “father-teacher,” his ailing, depressive and symbiotic mother, his emotionally-fragile wife, whom he named after her and his adopted “home-land” of Israel. Yet he maintained an incredible emotional resiliency and ability to “sublimate” his emotional pain into works of art. This biography seeks to investigate the emotional character of his literary canon, his ambivalence to his family and the underlying narcissistic grandiosity of his famous “modesty.”

Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel
Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel

Author: Stephen Budiansky

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2021-05-11

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1324005459

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A New York Times Critics' Top Book of 2021 • A Booklist Top Ten Biography of 2021 • A Kirkus Reviews Best Science Book of 2021 The first major biography written for a general audience of the logician and mathematician whose Incompleteness Theorems helped launch a modern scientific revolution. Nearly a hundred years after its publication, Kurt Gödel’s famous proof that every mathematical system must contain propositions that are true—yet never provable—continues to unsettle mathematics, philosophy, and computer science. Yet unlike Einstein, with whom he formed a warm and abiding friendship, Gödel has long escaped all but the most casual scrutiny of his life. Stephen Budiansky’s Journey to the Edge of Reason is the first biography to fully draw upon Gödel’s voluminous letters and writings—including a never-before-transcribed shorthand diary of his most intimate thoughts—to explore Gödel’s profound intellectual friendships, his moving relationship with his mother, his troubled yet devoted marriage, and the debilitating bouts of paranoia that ultimately took his life. It also offers an intimate portrait of the scientific and intellectual circles in prewar Vienna, a haunting account of Gödel’s and Jewish intellectuals’ flight from Austria and Germany at the start of the Second World War, and a vivid re-creation of the early days of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, where Gödel and Einstein both worked. Eloquent and insightful, Journey to the Edge of Reason is a fully realized portrait of the odd, brilliant, and tormented man who has been called the greatest logician since Aristotle, and illuminates the far-reaching implications of Gödel’s revolutionary ideas for philosophy, mathematics, artificial intelligence, and man’s place in the cosmos.