The Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer

By Georges Ifrah

Book Overview

"Georges Ifrah is the man. This book, quite simply, rules. . . . It is outstanding . . . a mind-boggling and enriching experience." -The Guardian (London) "Monumental. . . . a fascinating journey taking us through many different cultures."-The Times (London)"Ifrah's book amazes and fascinates by the scope of its scholarship. It is nothing less than the history of the human race told through figures." -International Herald Tribune Now in paperback, here is Georges Ifrah's landmark international bestseller-the first complete, universal study of the invention and evolution of numbers the world over. A riveting history of counting and calculating, from the time of the cave dwellers to the twentieth century, this fascinating volume brings numbers to thrilling life, explaining their development in human terms, the intriguing situations that made them necessary, and the brilliant achievements in human thought that they made possible. It takes us through the numbers story from Europe to China, via ancient Greece and Rome, Mesopotamia, Latin America, India, and the Arabic countries. Exploring the many ways civilizations developed and changed their mathematical systems, Ifrah imparts a unique insight into the nature of human thought-and into how our understanding of numbers and the ways they shape our lives have changed and grown over thousands of years. "Dazzling."-Kirkus Reviews "Sure to transfix readers."-PublishersWeekly

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471393401
• ISBN13: 9780471393405
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 656 Pages
• Weight: 3.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 9.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

5000 years in the fascinating story of numbers

One day, the young "devils" in a high school's mathematics class in France, asked some "plain" questions to their teacher: "When the numbers were invented?", "What is the history of the number Zero?", "How the ancients began writing down symbols for the numbers?" and so on... And these questions, changed the life of Georges Ifrah, the mathematics teacher in our story. He began his long voyage in the history of numbers and mathematics, through all mysterious ancient civilizations."Universal History of Numbers" is a huge, marvellous, fascinating story which deals with the birth of essential concepts in numbering systems in our distant past. Ifrah chases the clues in ancient sumerians hexagesymal system; the magical hieroglyphes of ancient Egyptians; the mysterious Maya and their counting system; Hebrew, Greek and Roman numbers with the mystics of "gematria"; sacred numerical signs of ancient Indus civilization and China, and much much more.This is not just a "history of numbers"; Ifrah's work is a brilliant study on the roots of our civilization. While dealing with the numbers, he also presents us a perfect panorama of ancient cultures, such as the Maya calendar, the Vedic philosophy, Ancient Sumerian myths or the stories of Egyptian gods, in a very entertaining style. If you are interested with the roots of civilization and "ancient wisdom", you must read this excellent book - you'll never regret.

Excellent work numbers

Simply the best book on numbers I've read. Many other books on numbers are replete with inaccuracies and exaggerations based on cultural and educational biases. Not here. Ifrah's chapter on the India's contribution to numbers and how the Sanskrit language was used to communicate numbers is simply spectacular. A must read for anyone interested in mathematics.

Exellent and Comprehensive History of Counting

The Universal History of Numbers is the most comprehensive book I have come across on the subject by quite some way, and I have probably read over 100. The style of writing makes the book easy to read, and it assumes almost no prior knowledge. Having said that the book is not exactly light bed time reading, there are nearly 650 large pages of quite small writing. It would take a *very* dedicated or interested reader to tackle the book from cover to cover. In my opinion it is best to read the introduction and first one or two chapters, and then to dip into the bits of the book you are particularly interested in. Because of this the book would not be the first I would recomend as an introduction to the subject, try Graham Flegg - Numbers: Their history and meaning, although I would not discourage anyone from buying the book either.As a resource for Teachers of mathematics the book is excellent. It covers the number system of almost every concievable culture and any teacher with the slightest imagination could use the information in an interesting way in the classroom.The book covers a lot of information which is not dealt with by the standard english language history of mathematics books, and as such is an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in the subject.One thing I particularly liked about the book was that it gave various different theories for each question, for instance 'What is the origin of 'our' numerals?', and the reasons for and against each. This was very interesting, as well as helping to explain why historians belive what they believe.The only criticism of this book I have is to do with its physical contruction. The pages are thin, and so is the cover, so it is very bendy, I would have prefered a hardback edition. However if it keeps the price down.To sum up this is an excellent book, and an invaluable addition to the collection of anyone with an interest in mathematics, it's history or it's teaching.

more than the sum of its parts

A rating of my appreciation of Bill Clinton over the past eight years, on a scale of 0 to 10? No, just an excellent book on the history of the concept of numbers and mathematical structures. Really nicely done and lavishly illustrated (by the author, no less)--and generally quite understandable to the layman. I'll always remember its point about the human brain not being able to recognize more than about four items at a glance. It got a little sprawly and opaque towards the end, but anything that makes base-20 systems comprehensible to me is a miracle.--J.Ruch

Excellent! Traces the history of Indian (Hindu) Numerals

The best book on history of numbers - ever! It traces the roots of our modern decimal system to India and provides details on how the symbols for all the current digits came from the original devanagari script ...