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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000010201088 | QA10.5 K46 2005 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
On Order
Summary
Summary
Based on dozens of interviews and extensive historical research, and spiced with interesting photographs, this entertaining book relates stories about mathematicians who have defied stereotypes. There are five chapters about women that provide insight into the nineteenth and the mid-twentieth century, the early 1970s, the early 1990s, and 2004. Activists in many fields will take heart at the progress made during that time. The author documents the rudimentary struggles to become professionals, being married without entirely giving up a career, organizing to eliminate flagrant discrimination, improving the daily treatment of women in the professional community, and the widespread efforts toward true equality.The stories of African Americans in mathematics include the efforts of Benjamin Banneker, an eighteenth century American who had three grandparents born in Africa. He helped design Washington, DC, and made the computations for almanacs that succeeded Benjamin Franklin's. There are stories about African American mathematicians who were students and faculty in late nineteenth century colleges and accounts of several efforts to integrate the mathematical community in the mid-twentieth century. These stories indicate that though some efforts were more successful than others, all of them were difficult.The book concludes with a happier chapter about five black mathematicians in the early twenty-first century. The book also includes five interviews with leading Latin American mathematicians, along with the results of a survey of Latino research mathematicians in the Southwest. The author is a skilled story-teller with good stories to tell. This book is a page-turner that all mathematicians - as well as other concerned with equality - should read. It is a work of great interest and an enjoyable read.
Author Notes
Patricia Clark, author of North of Wondering, won the first book award from Women in Literature Press. She is also the co-editor of Worlds in Our Words: An Anthology of Contemporary American Women Writers. At present, she teaches creative writing at Grand Valley State University, where she is Professor in the Department of Writing and the university's poet-in-residence.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
Recently a spate of books has appeared on the marketplace, seemingly aimed at inspiring and encouraging girls to enter the world of science and mathematics. This book by Kenshaft (Montclair State Univ., New Jersey) falls squarely in that category. It is essentially a collection of stories and very brief biographies, mostly of women, though 3 of the 11 chapters are devoted to African Americans and Latino mathematicians. More emphasis is placed on the help and support these minorities have received from white men than in comparable volumes, but the message is essentially the same: we need more women and minority mathematicians. This is not a scholarly book, although it is based on extensive interviews and research. There is no index, no bibliography, and very little reference to other research. But the book does not pretend to be scholarly; it is based on stories, which the author tells with relish and in a simple, accessible style. There are photographs of most of the people discussed, many of them snapshots emphasizing family roles. Its ideal audience would be girls of high school and junior high school age considering careers in mathematics. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates. M. H. Chaplin Wellesley College
Table of Contents
| Stories of Women and Minorities in Mathematics |
| Introduction |
| With the help of good white men Women and mathematics in the nineteenth century |
| The Twentieth century: Mathematics and marriage African American mathematicians from the eighteenth through the twentieth century Latino mathematicians |
| Reawakening: The Association for Women in Mathematics |
| Skits tell what's happening around 1990 Women in mathematics now (2004) Minorities in mathematics now (2004) Conclusions Appendix to |
| Chapter 5 The careers of 75 African American mathematicians of New Jersey in mid-1985 |
