The Art of More: how mathematics created civilisation

by Michael Brooks

Bestselling science writer Michael Brooks takes us on a fascinating journey through the history of civilisation, as he explains why maths is fundamental to our understanding of the world.

1, 2, 3 ... ? The untrained brain isn't wired for maths; beyond the number 3, it just sees 'more'. So why bother learning it at all?

You might remember studying geometry, calculus, and algebra at school, but you probably didn't realise - or weren't taught - that these are the roots of art, architecture, government, and almost every other aspect of our civilisation. The mathematics of triangles enabled explorers to travel far across the seas and astronomers to map the heavens. Calculus won the Allies the Second World War and halted the HIV epidemic. And imaginary numbers, it turns out, are essential to the realities of twenty-first-century life.

From ancient Egyptian priests to the Apollo astronauts, and Babylonian tax collectors to juggling robots, join Michael Brooks and his extraordinarily eccentric cast of characters in discovering how maths shaped the world around you.

• ISBN10: 1912854953
• ISBN13: 9781912854950
• Publish Date: 9 September 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Scribe Publications
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Art of More is a layman accessible examination of how mathematics has shaped civilization well explained by Dr. Michael Brooks. Due out 18th Jan 2021 from Knopf Doubleday on their Pantheon imprint, it's 336 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook format.

This is a fascinating look at mathematical concepts and how they have fostered exploration and discovery and why mathematics is fundamental to, well, everything. The author is wonderfully adept at explaining complex ideas and auxiliary concepts in simple and understandable ways and even for maths-shy readers, there are fascinating and valuable takeaways to be found here.

The chapters are arranged in essay style units written around a field of mathematics: arithmetic, geometry, algebra, calculus, logarithms, imaginary numbers, statistics, information theory, and a summary at the end giving a good broad overview tying everything together, and poking a bit of a pin into Le Corbusier's pomposity and the ascription of mystical significance to mathematical concepts like pi, e, and Planck's constant (and jolly well deserved, says this bionerd). If we can de-mystify, we can maybe make them more accessible, more useful, and more fun to everyone.

Five stars. This would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition, and for readers of popular science. For readers who still have a dog-eared copy of Gödel Escher Bach on their bookshelves, there's a lot to love in The Art of More, and I found Dr. Brooks' style much more accessible and less impenetrable than Dr. Hofstadter's.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.