Amir Alexander
Adjunct Professor
My research illuminates the deep interconnections between mathematics and its social, cultural, and political setting. Critical mathematical developments, I have found, were inseparable from broader historical trends that motivated them and gave them meaning and purpose.
My latest book, Proof! How the World Became Geometrical (2019) tells the story of geometry, conceived over 2000 years ago, and how it came to shape the world we know today. From the gardens of Versailles to the streets of Washington DC and beyond, geometry has not only fashioned our landscapes, but also our art, our ideals, and our politics.
The interdependence of mathematics and the culture of modernity were also the subject of my previous books.
Geometrical Landscapes (2002), demonstrates how early modern geometers came to view their field as a hazardous voyage of exploration on the seas of mathematics, making possible the development of the calculus. Duel at Dawn: Heroes, Martyrs, and the Rise of Modern Mathematics (2010), focuses on the role that tragic stories, derived from the culture of high romanticism, played in the emergence of the modern practice of mathematics in the 19th century. And Infinitesimal: The Dangerous Mathematical Theory that Shaped the Modern World (2014), is the story of the mathematical concept of the infinitely small, which in the 17th century became a battleground of competing visions of modernity.
My latest project focuses on how the Cartesian mathematical grid codified a vision of the New World, and was inscribed onto its landscape.
Degrees
<b>Education</b>
Stanford University 1996 Ph.D. in History of Science 1990 M.A. in History of Science
The Hebrew University in Jerusalem 1988 B.S. in Mathematics and History
Selected Publications
BooksInfinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World (New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux / Scientific American, 2014).
Duel at Dawn: Heroes, Martyrs, and the Rise of Modern Mathematics, (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2010). Reissued in paperback, 2011.
Geometrical Landscapes: The Voyages of Discovery and the Transformation of Mathematical Practice (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002). Recipient of the Choice magazine Outstanding Academic Title Award for 2003.
Selected PublicationsìMathematics, 1770-1914î in Kapil Raj and Otto Sibum eds., The History of Modern Science (Paris: La Seuil, 2014) forthcoming.
ìExamining the Square Root of Díoh!,î review of Simon Singh, The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets (New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2013), New York Times, January 27, 2014.
ìBrilliance Triumphs over Rejection,î review of Edward Frenkel, Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality (New York: Basic Books, 2013), New York Times, November 19, 2013.
ìFrom Voyagers to Martyrs: Towards a Storied History of Mathematics,î in Apostolos Doxiadis and Barry Mazur eds., Circles Disturbed: The Interplay of Mathematics and Narrative (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012).
ìThe Skeleton in the Closet: Should Historians of Science Care about the History of Mathematics?î introduction to a focus section on the history of science and the history of mathematics, Isis, vol. 102, no. 3, September 2011.
ìFrom Voyagers to Martyrs: Towards a Storied History of Mathematics,î in Apostolos Doxiadis and Barry Mazur eds., Circles Disturbed (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011), forthcoming. \Introduction\" to focus section on mathematical stories, Isis, vol. 97, no. 4, December 2006.
ìTragic Mathematics: Romantic Imagery and the Refounding of Mathematics,î Isis, vol. 97, no. 4, December 2006.\"Through the Mathematical Looking Glass,\" in Siegfried Zielinsky and David Link eds., Variantology 2: On Deep Time Relations of Arts, Sciences, and Technologies (Cologne: Walther Kˆnig, 2006).
ìHariot and Dee on Geographical Exploration and Mathematics: Did Scientific Imagery Make for New Scientific Practice?î in Brett D. Steele and Tamera Dorland eds., The Heirs of Archimedes: Science and the Art of War Through the Age of Enlightenment, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005).
ìStories and Numbers: How a Romantic Tale of Geographical Exploration Transformed Mathematics,î Historically Speaking: The Bulletin of the Historical Society, January 2004.
ìMathematics,î in Jonathan Dewald ed., From Gutenberg to the Bastille: The Emergence of the Modern World, (New York: Scribner, 2003).
\"Exploration Mathematics: The Rhetoric of Discovery and the Rise of Infinitesimal Methods,\" Configurations, vol. 9, no. 1, Winter 2001.
\"The Scientific Revolution,\" in Arne Hessenbruch ed., A Reader's Guide to the History of Science, (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2000).
\"Lunar Maps and Coastal Outlines: Thomas Hariot's Mapping of the Moon,\" Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, vol. 29, No. 3, September 1998.
\"The Imperialist Space of Elizabethan Mathematics,\" Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, vol. 26, No. 4, December 1995.
\"Israeli Television and the Problem of the Modern Subject,\" Zeitschrift fur Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik, vol. 98, June 1995."
Current Courses by Term
History of Science: Renaissance to 1800
Teaching Apprentice Practicum
History of Modern Medicine
Teaching Apprentice Practicum
Science and Religion from Copernicus to Darwinism
Previous Courses by Term
History of Modern Thought: Special Topics
History of Modern Thought
History of Modern Thought
History of Science: Renaissance to 1800
Topics in History of Science
History of Science: Renaissance to 1800
Topics in History of Science
Introduction to History of Science: Scientific Revolution
Introduction to Historical Practice: Variable Topics in History of Science/Technology
Topics in History of Science
Introduction to History of Science: Scientific Revolution
Contemporary World History, 1760 to Present
Science and Religion from Copernicus to Darwinism
History of Modern Thought: Special Topics
World History to A.D. 600
History of Modern Thought: Special Topics
Introduction to History of Science: History of Modern Science, Relativity to DNA
History of Modern Thought: Special Topics
World History, Circa 600 to 1760
History of Modern Thought: Special Topics
World History to A.D. 600
Introduction to Historical Practice: Variable Topics in History of Science/Technology
Introduction to History of Science: Biological Sciences, 1800 to 1955
Undergraduate Seminar
Undergraduate Seminar
Previous Courses by Course
History of Modern Thought: Special Topics
2019 Spring Quarter
History of Modern Thought
2019 Winter Quarter
History of Modern Thought
2018 Fall Quarter
History of Science: Renaissance to 1800
Topics in History of Science
Introduction to History of Science: Scientific Revolution
Introduction to Historical Practice: Variable Topics in History of Science/Technology
2015 Fall Quarter
2009 Fall Quarter
Contemporary World History, 1760 to Present
2014 Spring Quarter
Science and Religion from Copernicus to Darwinism
2014 Winter Quarter
History of Modern Thought: Special Topics
2013 Spring Quarter
2012 Spring Quarter
2011 Spring Quarter
2010 Spring Quarter
Introduction to History of Science: History of Modern Science, Relativity to DNA
2012 Spring Quarter
World History, Circa 600 to 1760
2011 Winter Quarter
Introduction to History of Science: Biological Sciences, 1800 to 1955
1999 Fall Quarter
Undergraduate Seminar
1999 Spring Quarter
Undergraduate Seminar