A History of Mathematics in the United States and Canada, Volume 2: 1900–1941

This is the first truly comprehensive and thorough history of the development of a mathematical community in the United States and Canada. This second volume starts at the turn of the twentieth century with a mathematical community that is firmly established and traces its growth over the next forty years, at the end of which the American mathematical community is pre-eminent in the world. In the preface to the first volume of this work Zitarelli reveals his animating philosophy, “I find that the human factor lends life and vitality to any subject.” History of mathematics, in the Zitarelli conception, is not just a collection of abstract ideas and their development. It is a community of people and practices joining together to understand, perpetuate, and advance those ideas and each other. Telling the story of mathematics means telling the stories of these people: their accomplishments and triumphs; the institutions and structures they built; their interpersonal and scientific interactions; and their failures and shortcomings. One of the most hopeful developments of the period 1900–1941 in American mathematics was the opening of the community to previously excluded populations. Increasing numbers of women were welcomed into mathematics, many of whom―including Anna Pell Wheeler, Olive Hazlett, and Mayme Logsdon―are profiled in these pages. Black mathematicians were often systemically excluded during this period, but, in spite of the obstacles, Elbert Frank Cox, Dudley Woodard, David Blackwell, and others built careers of significant accomplishment that are described here. The effect on the substantial community of European immigrants is detailed through the stories of dozens of individuals. In clear and compelling prose Zitarelli, Dumbaugh, and Kennedy spin a tale accessible to experts, general readers, and anyone interested in the history of science in North America. Cover Title page Copyright Contents Preface Permissions and credits Part IV. Consolidation and Growth, 1900–1930 Introduction to Part IV Chapter 8. Establishment: 1900–1914 8.1. Moore Mob, II 8.2. Bringing Hilbert to America 8.3. AMS Summer Meeting, 1904 8.4. Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis 8.5. University of Missouri and Washington University* in St. Louis 8.6. Princeton and Harvard 8.7. International Congresses of Mathematicians 8.8. Specialties 8.9. Yale and Calculus Textbooks 8.10. Concluding Thoughts: Holding Pattern Chapter 9. Wartime, 1914–1920 9.1. MAA 9.2. World War I 9.3. Cryptology 9.4. Point Set Topology and the R.L. Moore School 9.5. Chinese Students in the US 9.6. Concluding Thoughts: Increasing Professionalization Chapter 10. The Roaring Twenties 10.1. Departments 10.2. The Community 10.3. Concluding Thoughts: Diffusing from the Centers Chapter 11. More Roaring Twenties 11.1. Black American Pioneers 11.2. Research in Canada 11.3. Fields Medal 11.4. NRC Fellowships 11.5. American Mathematical Society 11.6. Mathematics Buildings 11.7. Concluding Thoughts: Building a Mathematical Enterprise Transition 1930: Albert vs. Hasse 11.8. Albert and Hasse, I 11.9. Albert and Hasse, II Part V. Internationalization,1930–1941 Introduction to Part V Historical Background Chapter 12. The Institute for Advanced Study and Algebra in America 12.1. The Institute for Advanced Study 12.2. Noether and Modern Algebra 12.3. Artin and Modern Algebra 12.4. Brauer: Algebras and Canada 12.5. Concluding Thoughts: The Foundation for the Vision Chapter 13. Émigré Applied Mathematicians 13.1. Applied Mathematics—Courant and NYU 13.2. Aerodynamics—von Kármán and Caltech 13.3. Statistics—Neyman and Berkeley 13.4. Mechanics—von Mises 13.5. Influence of Émigrés 13.6. Concluding Thoughts: A Great Reservoir of Talent Chapter 14. The Thirties 14.1. Logic in the 1930s 14.2. Alonzo Church 14.3. Logical Figures 14.4. Turing and Computers 14.5. Hassler Whitney and Topology 14.6. Statistics 14.7. Bridging Calculus and Engineering 14.8. Two Special Meetings 14.9. The Years 1938 and 1939 14.10. Employment Picture in the 1930s 14.11. Putnam Competition 14.12. Concluding Thoughts: A Growing Discipline Afterword: The Aggregate of Everyday Contributions Bibliography Index Copyright (continued) Back Cover Offers a comprehensive history of the development of mathematics in the US and Canada. This first volume of a two-volume work takes the reader from the European encounters with North America in the fifteenth century up to the emergence of the United States as a world leader in mathematics in the 1930s.