A History of Algebra: From Al-Khwarizmi to Emmy Noether
Bartel L. Van Der Waerden, "A History of Algebra: From Al-Khwarizmi to Emmy Noether"
English | ISBN: 3642516017, 038713610X | 1985 | 288 pages | PDF | 9 MB
English | ISBN: 3642516017, 038713610X | 1985 | 288 pages | PDF | 9 MB
Review
I give it four stars because I agree with Eric Drexler on one thing! No book can possibly be perfect. One curious imperfection from Van Der Waerden's 'History of Algebra' is how abruptly it ends
If that doesn't express how abruptly it ends, I don't know how else to express it! About the only problem I had with the book is how little he says about algebraic invariance theory. I would have liked him to say how algebraic invariance theory related to Emmy Noether's work. The book was only 270 pages; surely, he could have fit some more mathematics in this great book! He does mention quickly that there is something called invariance theory, but he just references off.
Seems that he has chosen to stop where Homology takes over algebraic progress. I don't know how much to criticize there.
I don't think he covers Emil Artin's Galois theory either! I suppose one could just go to Emil Artin's account it!
Despite every problem I can find, it's hard to argue with how much mathematics Van Der Waerden stuffs in this book. My biggest head scratcher his abrupt ending! I wonder if he meant to include more twentieth century matheamtics.