A History Of π
''A History of Pi'' (also titled ''A History of '') is a 1970 non-fiction book by Petr Beckmann that presents a layman's introduction to the concept of the mathematical constant pi (). Author Beckmann was a Czechoslovakian who fled the Communist regime to go to the United States. His dislike of authority gives ''A History of Pi'' a style that belies its dry title. For example, his chapter on the era following the classical age of ancient Greece is titled "The Roman Pest"; he calls the Catholic Inquisition the act of "insane religious fanatic"; and he says that people who question public spending on scientific research are "intellectual cripples who drivel about 'too much technology' because technology has wounded them with the ultimate insult: 'They can't understand it any more.'" Beckmann was a prolific scientific author who wrote several electrical engineering textbooks and non-technical works, founded Golem Press, which published most of his books, and published his own monthl ...
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