ABSTRACTS

AbstractThe purpose of this department is to give sufficient information about the subject matter of each publication to enable users to decide whether to read it. It is our intention to cover all books, articles, and other materials in the field.Books for abstracting and eventual review should be sent to this department. Materials should be sent to Prof. David E. Zitarelli, Department of Mathematics, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, U.S.A. (e-mail: [email protected])Readers are invited to send reprints, autoabstracts, corrections, additions, and notices of publications that have been overlooked. Be sure to include complete bibliographic information, as well as transliteration and translation for non-European languages. We need volunteers willing to cover one or more journals for this department.In order to facilitate reference and indexing, entries are given abstract numbers which appear at the end following the symbol #. A triple numbering system is used: the first number indicates the volume, the second the issue number, and the third the sequential number within that issue. For example, the abstracts for Volume 20, Number 1, are numbered: 20.1.1, 20.1.2, 20.1.3, etc.For reviews and abstracts published in Volumes 1 through 13 there are anauthor indexin Volume 13, Number 4, and asubject indexin Volume 14, Number 1.The initials in parentheses at the end of an entry indicate the abstractor. In this issue there are abstracts by Vı́ctor Albis (Bogotá), Irving Anellis (Ames, IA), Thomas L. Bartlow (Villanova, PA), David Bressoud (St. Paul, MN), Catherine Goldstein (Paris), Herbert Kasube (Peoria, IL), Albert C. Lewis (Hamilton), Laura Nurzia (Reading, GB), James V. Rauff (Decatur, IL), Paul Wolfson (West Chester), and David E. Zitarelli

SteveBattersonPursuit of Genius: Flexner, Einstein, and the Early Faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study2006A K PetersWellesley, MA978-1-56881-259-5xi + 301 pp. $39.00

Unknow

Founders, Feminists, and a Fascist -- Some Notable Women in the Missouri Section of the MAA

In the history of the Missouri Section of the MAA, some of the more interesting people who influenced the growth and development of the section through the years were and are women. In this chapter, we discuss the contributions of a few (certainly not all) of these women to the Missouri Section and mathematics as a whole, including Emily Kathryn Wyant (founder of KME), Margaret F. Willerding (who dealt with sexism in the 1940s), Maria Castellani (an official in Mussolini’s Italy before coming to America), and T. Christine Stevens (co-founder of Project NExT). Without them, and others like them, both mathematics and the Missouri Section of the MAA would be poorer

A history of mathematics in the united states and canada: volume 1 : 1492-1900

This is the first truly comprehensive and thorough history of the development of mathematics and a mathematical community in the United States and Canada. This first volume of the multi-volume work takes the reader from the European encounters with North America in the fifteenth century up to the emergence of a research community the United States in the last quarter of the nineteenth. In the story of the colonial period, particular emphasis is given to several prominent colonial figures--Jefferson, Franklin, and Rittenhouse--and four important early colleges--Harvard, Québec, William & Mary, and Yale. During the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century, mathematics in North America was largely the occupation of scattered individual pioneers: Bowditch, Farrar, Adrain, B. Peirce. This period is given a fuller treatment here than previously in the literature, including the creation of the first PhD programs and attempts to form organizations and found journals. With the founding of Johns Hopkins in 1876 the American mathematical research community was finally, and firmly, founded. The programs at Hopkins, Chicago, and Clark are detailed as are the influence of major European mathematicians including especially Klein, Hilbert, and Sylvester. Klein's visit to the US and his Evanston Colloquium are extensively detailed. The founding of the American Mathematical Society is thoroughly discussed. David Zitarelli is emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Temple University. A decorated and acclaimed teacher, scholar, and expositor, he is one of the world's leading experts on the development of American mathematics. Author or co-author of over a dozen books, this is his magnum opus--sure to become the leading reference on the topic and essential reading, not just for historians. In clear and compelling prose Zitarelli spins a tale accessible to experts,generalists, and anyone interested in the history of science in North America