""The Mathematical Century" is both popular and scholarly. Piergiorgio Odifreddi
clearly and accurately covers many important mathematical problems and the
contributions that leading mathematicians have made to their solutions. Offering
a personal but very balanced perspective, his book is one that amateur and
professional alike can learn from."--Sir Michael Atiyah, Fields Medalist 1966,
and former President of the Royal Society

"Piergiorgio Odifreddi has done a superb job, telling the story of twentieth-
century mathematics in one short and readable volume."--Freeman Dyson, Institute
for Advanced Study, Princeton

"Odifreddi's book successfully portrays the major developments in 20th century
mathematics by an examination of the mathematical problems that have gained
prominence during the past 100 years. . . . [It] comes very near to being that
intangible entity--a history of modern mathematics. Moreover, the literary style
is such that the contents are made accessible to a very wide readership, but
with no hint of oversimplification."--P.N. Ruane, "MAA Online"

The twentieth century was a time of unprecedented development in mathematics, as
well as in all sciences: more theorems were proved and results found in a hundred
years than in all of previous history. In "The Mathematical Century," Piergiorgio
Odifreddi distills this unwieldy mass of knowledge into a fascinating and
authoritative overview of the subject. He concentrates on thirty highlights of
pure and applied mathematics. Each tells the story of an exciting problem, from
its historical origins to its modern solution, in lively prose free of technical
details.

Odifreddi opens by discussing the four main philosophical foundations of
mathematics of the nineteenth century and ends by describing the four most
important open mathematical problems of the twenty-first century. In presenting
the thirty problems at the heart of the book he devotes equal attention to pure
and applied mathematics, with applications ranging from physics and computer
science to biology and economics. Special attention is dedicated to the famous
"23 problems" outlined by David Hilbert in his address to the International
Congress of Mathematicians in 1900 as a research program for the new century,
and to the work of the winners of the Fields Medal, the equivalent of a Nobel
prize in mathematics.

This eminently readable book will be treasured not only by students and their
teachers but also by all those who seek to make sense of the elusive macrocosm
of twentieth-century mathematics.

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