The book review (due Oct. 17)

These are things to keep in mind when choosing your book.

Subject matter

There are two requirements:
  1. This book should NOT be a general history of mathematics (save that one for your second paper, if you wish), but rather a more focused book.
  2. The book should contain a nontrivial amount of history and a nontrivial amount of mathematics.
That leaves open a variety of possibilities. The book can be

The examples were chosen at random. (I happen to own them all and have them in my house this afternoon. I've read 2 1/2 of the 6.) More examples appear on Dr. Allen's page.

Level

Dr. Allen said the book should be "scholarly, not a popularization" (but he also encouraged biographies, which are usually written for a general audience and hence are limited in how deeply they can treat the mathematics). I don't know where to draw the line between scholarly and popular books, especially if asked about a book I've never seen. I trust you to choose a book that you think is respectable for a graduate student to be reading for academic credit. Further: