Italian Mathematics Between the Two World Wars

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Prologue

   Pages 1-28

3. Nothing is as it was before

   Pages 29-54

4. Volterra’s leadership

   Pages 55-82

5. Fascism: somebody rise, others fall

   Pages 83-99

6. One man alone in the lead

   Pages 101-158

7. The CNR alternative

   Pages 159-214

8. The 1930s move forward

   Pages 215-242

9. Towards disaster

   Pages 243-281

10. Conclusions

    Pages 283-291

11. Back Matter

    Pages 293-299

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During the first decades of the last century Italian mathematics was considered to be the third national school due to its importance and the high level of its numerous - searchers. The decision to organize the 1908 International Congress of Mathematicians in Rome (after those in Paris and Heidelberg) confirmed this position. Qualified Italian universities were permanently included in the tour organized for young mathematicians’ improvement. Even in the years after the First World War, Rome (together with Paris and Göttingen) remained an important mathematical center according to the American ma- ematician G. D. Birkhoff. Now, after almost a century, we can state that the golden age of Italian mathem- th th ics reduces to the decades between the 19 and the 20 century. In the centre of interest stood the algebraic geometry school with Guido Calstelnuovo, Federico Enriques and Francesco Severi acting as key figures. Their work led to an almost complete systema- zation of the theory of curves to the complete classification of the surfaces and to the bases of a general theory of algebraic varieties. Other important contributions came from the Italian school of analysis. Its main representative was Vito Volterra – an outstanding analyst with a strong interest in mathematical physics – who produced important results in real analysis and the theory of integral equations and contributed to the initiation of functional analysis.

• Algebra
• Analysis
• Biomathematics
• Geometry
• History of Mathematics
• Italian Mathematics
• Mathematical Physics
• Volterra
• calculus
• mathematics

From the reviews:

“What the book conveys is the richness of Italian mathematics throughout the period and, despite being expert in none of these fields, the authors captured my imagination and made me want to know more of such mathematical ideas … immensely enjoyable for all that.”(MAA REVIEWS)

• Centro PRISTEM-Eleusi, Università Bocconi, Milano, Italy

  Angelo Guerraggio

• Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Palermo, Palermo, Italy

  Pietro Nastasi

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