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Evariste Galois' short life was lived against the turbulent background of the restoration of the Bourbons to the throne of France, the 1830 revolution in Paris and the accession of Louis-Phillipe. This new and scrupulously researched biography of the founder of modern algebra sheds much light on a life led with great intensity and a death met tragically under dark circumstances. Sorting speculation from documented fact, it offers the fullest and most exacting account ever written of Galois' life and work. It took more than seventy years to fully understand the French mathematician's first mémoire (published in 1846) which formulated the famous "Galois theory" concerning the solvability of algebraic equations by radicals, from which group theory would follow. Obscurities in his other writings - mémoires and numerous fragments of extant papers - persist and his ideas challenge mathematicians to this day. Thus scholars will welcome those chapters devoted specifically to explicating all aspects of Galois' work. A comprehensive bibliography enumerates studies by and also those about the mathematician.
List of contents
1 The Early Years.- 1811-1823.- A Strict School.- 2 The Excitement of Mathematics.- A Beneficial Injustice.- Early Dreams of Glory.- Two Serious Setbacks.- The Beginning of a Difficult Year.- 3 The "Three Glorious Days".- The Ordinances of Charles X.- Riots in Paris.- Another King!.- The End of a School Career.- 4 To Louis-Philippe!.- A New Plan.- Trouble with the Law.- The Trial of the Fifteen.- Prison.- 5 A Pointless Death.- The Mathematical Work of Evariste Galois.- Index of Names.- List of Illustrations.
Report
"This very pleasant, interesting and well-written biography is based on the analysis and interpretation of a series of hitherto neglected documents found by the author in the French archives. Certainly a book to recommend and that every mathematical library should have."
--Numerical Algorithms
