Amir Alexander teaches history at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Infinitesimal, Geometrical Landscapes, and Duel at Dawn. His writing has appeared in The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, and his work has been featured in Nature and The Guardian, on NPR, and elsewhere. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
Alexander's lucid and convincingly argued book fully demonstrates how ideas ancient in origin continue to shape the contemporary world. --Publishers Weekly By crafting an argument as elegant as a Euclidean proof, Amir Alexander demonstrates that ancient Greek geometry helped shape our modern political systems, from kingdoms to republics to empires. This is intellectual history at its finest: illuminating, surprising, and a cracking good read. --Steven Strogatz, Professor of Mathematics, Cornell University, and author of Infinite Powers Geometry is at the center of this retelling of the history of modernity. Amir Alexander brings his prodigious storytelling skills to the task, and the result is elegant, illuminating, and thoroughly entertaining. --Michael Harris, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia University