Symbols and Things

Mathematics in the Age of Steam

Kevin Lambert

$165

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

University of Pittsburgh Press
01 December 2021

History of mathematics; Philosophy of science

Series: Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century

In the steam-powered mechanical age of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the work of late Georgian and early Victorian mathematicians depended on far more than the properties of number. British mathematicians came to rely on industrialised paper and pen manufacture, railways and mail, and the print industries of the book, disciplinary journal, magazine, and newspaper. Though not always physically present with one another, the characters central to this book - from George Green to William Rowan Hamilton - relied heavily on communication technologies as they developed their theories in consort with colleagues. The letters they exchanged, together with the equations, diagrams, tables, or pictures that filled their manuscripts and publications, were all tangible traces of abstract ideas that extended mathematicians into their social and material environment. Each chapter of this book explores a thing, or assembling of things, mathematicians needed to do their work - whether a textbook, museum, journal, library, diagram, notebook, or letter - all characteristic of the mid-nineteenth-century British taskscape, but also representative of great change to a discipline brought about by an industrialised world in motion.

AUTHOR: Kevin Lambert is a historian of science and mathematics and professor in the liberal studies department at California State University, Fullerton.

By: Kevin Lambert
Imprint: University of Pittsburgh Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9780822946830
ISBN 10: 0822946831
Series: Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century
Pages: 330
Publication Date: 01 December 2021
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Unspecified

Kevin Lambert is a historian of science and mathematics and professor in the liberal studies department at California State University, Fullerton.

Reviews for Symbols and Things: Mathematics in the Age of Steam

Kevin Lambert's Symbols and Things is a remarkable piece of work that has the promise to significantly expand our understandings of the ways mathematical ideas develop in their historical contexts. Lambert's focus is on developments in Victorian mathematics and physics, but the implications of his mode of analysis stretch far beyond the constraints of that depiction. His understanding of mathematicians as engaged in 'mindful work' allows him to recognize their essential ties to the work of builders, painters, poets, theologians, and natural philosophers. In Lambert's construction, the textbooks, journals, libraries, museums, diagrams, notebooks, and personal letters in which mathematics was embedded become the tips of icebergs of material, social, and political development. The result is a breathtakingly original study that at once recasts understandings of the nature of mathematics and sheds new light on the Victorian culture in which it developed. --Joan Richards, Brown University This book should stimulate lively discussions among specialists about the potential new insights and unavoidable limitations of the methodology. --CHOICE