A. D. D. Craik

Gebundenes Buch

Mr Hopkins' Men

Cambridge Reform and British Mathematics in the 19th Century

Beschreibung

This is the story of a remarkable private tutor, William Hopkins, and the education and subsequent careers of a group of his students - so-called Wranglers.

The book takes advantage of first-hand accounts of life at Cambridge to allow the reader a glimpse inside Cambridge s colleges and, in particular, Hopkins' tutoring rooms. It follows the evolution of the curriculum and the slow reforms that led to Cambridge s dominance of higher education. It surveys the scientific achievements of the time and looks at the disproportionate contributions made by Scottish and Irish alumni in establishing Cambridge as a research centre for the mathematical and physical sciences.

Hopkins influence was far-reaching and the book surveys the careers of some of his best students. We can also see what these students looked like with the reproduction of Hopkins own collection of 42 pencil and watercolour portraits of his top students - including GG Stokes, Lord Kelvin, A. Cayley - reproduced here for the first time.

Autor

ADD Craik is a well-respected mathematician and an authority on 19th century mathematics. He has contributed a number of well-regarded articles to journals such as "Historia Mathematica" and "Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London".

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Springer, Berlin
• Artikelnr. des Verlages: 11894230
• 2007
• Seitenzahl: 448
• Erscheinungstermin: 14. August 2007
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 241mm x 160mm x 32mm
• Gewicht: 916g
• ISBN-13: 9781846287909
• ISBN-10: 1846287901
• Artikelnr.: 22707025

Rezensionen

From the reviews:

"Mr Hopkins' Men is a book which takes the reader on a hike across nineteenth century mathematics in the British Isles. It takes in university reform, the lives of great mathematicians and the cultural influences and religious controversies in Victorian Britain. The author provides an engaging combination of historical colour, breadth of scope and fascinating detail in his narrative. It was a joy to read [Mark McCartney, University of Ulster: BSHM Bulletin]"

"Groomed for Success"

A few years ago, Alex Craik, a mathematician from the university of St. Andrews, found an obscure collection of portraits in the Wren Library of Trinity College at Cambridge University. The people depicted all had one

thing in common: they had been pupils of the famous 19th-century Cambridge private mathematics tutor William Hopkins. He had taught a group that included George Stokes, William Thomson and James Clerk Maxwell, as well as other less famous but still highly successful scientists. Inspired by this finding, Craik has written Mr Hopkins' Men, which tells the story of Hopkins and his top students. The book provides a fascinating insight into 19th-century Cambridge college life, and charts how the university evolved from an outdated and stagnating institution into the world-renowned centre for mathematical and scientific research it is today. Many of these reforms were, in fact, down to Hopkins and the men he tutored." -Physics World, June 2008

"This book gives a fascinating view of Cambridge University during the Victorian era. ... The book can be recommended to people who are interested in the history of Victorian Britain in general and in the history of Cambridge University, mathematical education, mathematics, and scientific life and work, as well as the connections of science and religious belief, politics, etc." (EMS Newsletter, June, 2008)

"The nineteenth century has often been styled the age of reformin Britain and neither higher education nor mathematical curricula were immune to the reforming impulses that have come to characterize the era. ... book that will serve as a resource for those interested both in the role of mathematics in nineteenth century Cambridge and in the lives of many of those who so successfully gamed the Cambridge system." (Karen Hunger Parshall, ISIS, Vol. 100 (3), 2009)

"The author has researched very well, not only in the published primary and secondary literature but also in various archives. His long bibliography is followed by excellent indices; nearly 50 pages of end matter. He has produced an impressive and attractive book - and his publisher has matched him in the quality of the reproductions and indeed in the book as a whole, which even carries a ribbon bookmark. Overall this book and Warwick's shed much light on the Tripos, its context and consequences." (The Mathematical Gazette, July 2010)