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by: Joan L. Richards
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 509
EAN: 9780716794615
ISBN: 0716794616
Label: W. H. Freeman
Manufacturer: W. H. Freeman
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: May 01, 2001
Publisher: W. H. Freeman
Sales Rank: 1901498
Studio: W. H. Freeman
Accessories:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
At the time her nine-year-old son was diagnosed with a brain tumor, Joan Richards was deeply involved in writing a book about the life and work of the nineteenth-century mathematician Augustus De Morgan. Immersed in this abstract, logical world of science, Richards was forced by her son's sudden illness to confront a different kind of reality--the irrational world of a serious family illness and its consequences.
An intellectual memoir, Angles of Reflection portrays a woman deeply enmeshed in two male-dominated worlds--nineteenth century mathematics and twentieth century research academics--struggling to integrate the competing demands of family and career without sacrificing one to the other. As the strain of caring for her sick child mounts, Richards' view of De Morgan broadens to include his family in ways that both illuminate his work and force her to reevaluate her own career and relationships. In the process, she gives new meaning to the term 'applied mathematics' by drawing life lessons out of De Morgan's logic, Newton's absolute space and time, and Leibnitz's relative visions of reality. She emerges from her ordeal profoundly altered, with a new appreciation of the ways that life, family, and work can inform and enrich one another.
Filled with insightful discussions of the debates among some of the finest mathematical minds of the 17th through 19th centuries, Angles of Reflection is both an intellectual journey through the history of mathematics and a gripping testament to maternal love.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Reflecting on "Angles"
I read "Angles of Reflection" for a graduate course on untraditional history at Brown University, and as Joan Richards is our graduate advisor, she came to a class to discuss the book with us. The thing that struck me the most was that she said, "I just HAD to write this book". After you read it, you realize this book is a healing process, a way to come to grips with the whirlwind of drama that faced the Richards family as Ned's two medical mishaps came to light, and Richards' struggles as an academic ... Read More
Rating:  - Divided Lives Redux
I just spent the past Saturday afternoon reading _Angles of Reflection_ by Joan L. Richards and was quite moved by it. For anyone who has had to grapple with balancing work and family -- including in academics where one's schedule is flexible but at times consuming and unpredictable -- this book is a must read along with other similar volumes, such as _Divided Lives_ and _True North_. Richards's depictions of "mother's time" and "professional time", as well as the conflict between the two, could very ... Read More
Rating:  - Good writing, but the point being made is hard to make out
I found this book to be very well written, and at the beginning I had high hopes that I would like it very much. However, I found that as the book went on, I was less and less sure what point the author was trying to make and just what the focus of the book was supposed to be. What the author's son Ned went through with two unrelated and severe medical problems was compelling to read about, but not really enough to carry the book. The math history parts of the book often seemed quite unrelated to the ... Read More
Rating: - Many angles to reflect upon
I have read this book twice, and recommended it to several friends, and find it a most complex and multi-faceted tale. On the one hand a poignant account of a sick child,and an examination of the difficult decisions everyone has to make under uncertainty, it is much more than that as it weaves Newton, Leibniz and Augustus de Morgan and the choices they made into the story. It was in many ways a brave decision of Joan Richards to write and publish this book, and those who read it can judge for themselves ... Read More
Rating: - For the love of angles
I want it for my mom she is and angle and she should be in this book!!!
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