Why read The Secret Lives of Numbers?

Book cover of The Secret Lives of Numbers

Book description

A revisionist, completely accessible and radically inclusive history of maths

'Lively, satisfying, good at explaining difficult concepts' The Sunday Times

Mathematics shapes almost everything we do. But despite its reputation as the study of fundamental truths, the stories we have been told about it are wrong. In The Secret Lives…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Secret Lives of Numbers as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Jim E. Riviere

Author

This book provides an interesting take on the history of mathematics from a truly global perspective, a viewpoint often ignored in traditional history books on this subject.

I found it fascinating as it showed how crucial the development of numbers was to a myriad of different societies, as well as how mathematical concepts emerged independently at different times in different cultures over the last six thousand years.

An eye-opening book.

From Jim's list on how numbers such as zero have affected society’s evolution and its concept of risk.