A History of Algebraic and Differential Topology, 1900 - 1960 - Hardcover

Dieudonné, Jean

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 081763388X ISBN 13: 9780817633882

Publisher: Birkhäuser, 1989

Synopsis

This book is a well-informed and detailed analysis of the problems and development of algebraic topology, from Poincaré and Brouwer to Serre, Adams, and Thom. The author has examined each significant paper along this route and describes the steps and strategy of its proofs and its relation to other work. Previously, the history of the many technical developments of 20th-century mathematics had seemed to present insuperable obstacles to scholarship. This book demonstrates in the case of topology how these obstacles can be overcome, with enlightening results.... Within its chosen boundaries the coverage of this book is superb. Read it!

―MathSciNet

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Since the early part of the 20th century, topology has gradually spread to many other branches of mathematics, and this book demonstrates how the subject continues to play a central role in the field. Written by a world-renowned mathematician, this classic text traces the history of algebraic topology beginning with its creation in the early 1900s and describes in detail the important theories that were discovered before 1960. Through the work of Poincaré, de Rham, Cartan, Hureqicz, and many others, this historical book also focuses on the emergence of new ideas and methods that have led 21st-century mathematicians towards new research directions.

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This book is a well-informed and detailed analysis of the problems and development of algebraic topology, from Poincaré and Brouwer to Serre, Adams, and Thom. The author has examined each significant paper along this route and describes the steps and strategy of its proofs and its relation to other work. Previously, the history of the many technical developments of 20th-century mathematics had seemed to present insuperable obstacles to scholarship. This book demonstrates in the case of topology how these obstacles can be overcome, with enlightening results.... Within its chosen boundaries the coverage of this book is superb. Read it!

―MathSciNet

[The author] traces the development of algebraic and differential topology from the innovative work by Poincaré at the turn of the century to the period around 1960. [He] has given a superb account of the growth of these fields.... The details are interwoven with the narrative in a very pleasant fashion.... [The author] has previous written histories of functional analysis and of algebraic geometry, but neither book was on such a grand scale as this one. He has made it possible to trace the important steps in the growth of algebraic and differential topology, and to admire the hard work and major advances made by the founders.

―Zentralblatt MATH

Synopsis:

A classic available again, this book traces the history of algebraic topology beginning with its creation by Henry Poincare in 1900, and describing in detail the important ideas introduced in the theory before 1960. In its first thirty years the field seemed limited to applications in algebraic geometry, but this changed dramatically in the 1930s with the creation of differential topology by Georges De Rham and Elie Cartan and of homotopy theory by Witold Hurewicz and Heinz Hopf. The influence of topology began to spread to more and more branches as it gradually took on a central place in mathematics. Written by a world-renowned mathematician, this book will make exciting reading for anyone working with topology.

About this edition

• Publisher: Birkhäuser
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 081763388X
• ISBN 13: 9780817633882
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 648