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Modern mathematics in the light of the Fields Medals. (English) Zbl 0874.01014

Wellesley, MA: A K Peters. xv, 160 p. (1997).
A better review of the book will be to quote some portions from the foreword by F. Dyson. “This little book is extraordinary in at least three ways. First, it contains in only 150 pages a synopsis of the whole of modern mathematics. Second, it is fully international in scope, giving equal emphasis to outstanding achievements of mathematicians of all countries. Third, it comes with a superb bibliography, giving references to original papers and review articles.” …“The idea of summarizing the whole of mathematics in 150 pages seems at first glance to be absurd …Monastyrsky was brave enough to attempt it in spite of the absurdity, and he has brilliantly succeeded …”
The 1991 Russian edition of the book was an expanded version of an article published in Istor. Mat. Issled. (Historical Mathematical Research) in 1989. The book contains a brief biography of John Charles Fields and a history of the Fields medals – including the circumstances in which the Soviet Mathematicians like Gelfond, Khinchin and Kolmogorov had to miss the 1936 Congress, Novikov and Margulis had to miss the awards ceremony in 1970 and 1978. Some of the literature used by M. Monastyrsky is [D. J. Albers, G. L. Alexanderson and C. Reid, International mathematical congresses. An illustrated history 1893-1986. Rev. ed. Including ICM 1986. New York etc.: Springer-Verlag (1987; Zbl 0611.01014)].

MSC:

01A80 Sociology (and profession) of mathematics
01-02 Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to history and biography
01A65 Development of contemporary mathematics

Citations:

Zbl 0611.01014
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