''God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History'' is a 2005 anthology, edited by Stephen Hawking, of "excerpts from thirty-one of the most important works in the history of mathematics." The title of the book is a reference to a quotation attributed to mathematician

Leopold Kronecker Leopold Kronecker (; 7 December 1823 – 29 December 1891) was a German mathematician who worked on number theory, algebra and logic. He criticized Georg Cantor's work on set theory, and was quoted by as having said, "'" ("God made the integers, ...

, who once wrote that "God made the

integer An integer is the number zero (), a positive natural number (, , , etc.) or a negative integer with a minus sign ( −1, −2, −3, etc.). The negative numbers are the additive inverses of the corresponding positive numbers. In the languag ...

s; all else is the work of man."

Eric Temple Bell Eric Temple Bell (7 February 1883 – 21 December 1960) was a Scottish-born mathematician and science fiction writer who lived in the United States for most of his life. He published non-fiction using his given name and fiction as John Tain ...

, 1986. ''Men of Mathematics'', Simon and Schuster, New York. p. 477

Content

The works are grouped by author and ordered chronologically. Each section is prefaced by notes on the mathematician's life and work. The anthology includes works by the following mathematicians: Selections from the works of Euler, Bolyai,

Lobachevsky Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky ( rus, Никола́й Ива́нович Лобаче́вский, p=nʲikɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ləbɐˈtɕɛfskʲɪj, a=Ru-Nikolai_Ivanovich_Lobachevsky.ogg; – ) was a Russian mathematician and geometer, kn ...

and Galois, which are included in the second edition of the book (published in 2007), were not included in the first edition.

Editions

References

2005 non-fiction books Books by Stephen Hawking History of mathematics Mathematics books Running Press books {{Physics-book-stub