Michael Brooks
Author, broadcaster and journalist
September 2021 Release
The Art of More:
how mathematics created civilisation
1, 2, 3 ... ? The untrained brain isn't wired for maths; beyond the number 3, it just sees 'more'. So why bother learning it?
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.
'Michael Brooks has written both a lively history of civilisation, and a delightful introduction to the power of mathematics. Either would be an achievement, but to do both simultaneously is a wonder.'
Tim Harford, author of How To Make the World Add Up
'How brilliant of Michael Brooks to be able to reignite my almost-forgotten childhood love of mathematics. Written with beauty, style, and care for the history as well as for the science. A tour de force.'
Angela Saini, author of Superior: the return of race science
'If you love maths, you'll enjoy this book. But if you're a little scared of maths (as I am), you'll adore The Art of More. Michael Brooks knows how to tell the hidden stories behind numbers, formulas, and logarithms.'
Andrea Wulf, author of The Invention of Nature
'This book is not only a passionate love letter to mathematics, it offers an important lesson in the appreciation of mathematics, and of its crucial role in humanity's history.'
Mario Livio, astrophysicist, and author of Galileo and The Science Deniers
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