"For Ivor Grattan-Guinness . . . the story of how numbers were invented and harnessed is a passionate, physical saga.

The many-sided story of the reception is recorded up to 1940, including the rise of logic in Poland and the impact on Vienna Circle philosophers Carnap and Gödel.

There is a large body of historical literature that is in need of just the kind of synthesis and masterly overview that this work provides.

In the former, he demonstrated mathematically the stability of the solar system in accordance with the universal Newtonian law of gravity.

These essays ponder the intellectual underpinnings of the field, examine the major topics in the history of mathematics, and recount the bizarre history of pseudomath.