A History of Pi

The real let-down came several chapters further on. I largely agree with the political and historiographical assessments Dr. Beckmann preaches in his book: yes, Aristotle was a scientific dullard now lauded by posterity; yes, the Romans were mathematical morons who didnt even understand the hydrodynamics of their own aqueducts; yes, National Socialism was bad. Ill even concede that Dr. Beckmanns sardonic prose sometimes made the ubiquitous tangents an entertaining diversion. Still and all, what about pi? This is by far the tersest mathematical presentation of difficult ideas I have ever seen in a popular science text. Some of the explanations about mathematical reasoning are positively opaque --- but by the end youre grateful when theres any explanation at all.

I have to entertain the uncomfortable possibility that Dr. Beckmann omitted a thorough discussion of the technical points so that he could cram the proofs as well as his ideological agenda into a fixed number of words.

"A History of Pi", to give due credit, does touch on the major historical events in the study of this beautiful number (as long as youre prepared to forgive the limited coverage of computational developments, given the books age). If an ad hoc mixture of political commentary, historical revisionism and dense geometric reasoning is what youre in the mood for, youve picked a winner. Otherwise you ought to look elsewhere. I learned much more about the history and role of pi from "E: The Story of a Number", by Eli Maor, than I did from "A History of Pi".