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Birkhäuser

Italian Mathematics Between the Two World Wars

  • Book
  • © 2006

Overview

Authors:
  1. Angelo Guerraggio

    1. Centro PRISTEM-Eleusi, Università Bocconi, Milano, Italy

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  2. Pietro Nastasi

    1. Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Palermo, Palermo, Italy

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  • History of a nation as "mathematical power"
  • Study of a difficult and exciting time shaped by strong personalities

Part of the book series: Science Networks. Historical Studies (SNHS, volume 29)

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  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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Keywords

About this book

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.

Reviews

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)

Authors and Affiliations

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

    Angelo Guerraggio

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

    Pietro Nastasi

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