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Saunders Mac Lane: A Mathematical Autobiography
Saunders Mac Lane was an extraordinary mathematician, a dedicated teacher, and a good citizen who cared deeply about the values of science and education. In his autobiography, he gives us a glimpse of his "life and times," mixing the highly personal with professional observations. His recollections bring to life a century of extraordinary accomplishments and tragedies that
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Community Reviews
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Pretty interesting to me, as it touched on lots of tangential interests. Saunders was over at the University of Chicago during the Hutchins era (Hutchins got him over there!), did important work in research (categories and algebra and other things I don't understand), and has lots of anecdotes about other famous mathematical figures of the 20th century — Irving Kaplansky, Haskell Curry, Howard's thesis troubles (of Curry-Howard isomorphism fame), etc (lots more than that, just those three came t
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Sep 04, 2015
Jonathan Chan
added it
Probably 3/5 as a rating, but this is an autobiography that, without warning, slips into surveys of quite difficult, abstract mathematics (unsurprising, this being the co-inventor of categories). I can only give a proper rating if I am able to understand most (if not all) the mathematics.
That said, Mac Lane's book seems a tad unfinished. There is plenty of content, but somehow there is a lack of polish. For such an illustrious mathematician, one would have expected more story, more anecdote, mor ...more
That said, Mac Lane's book seems a tad unfinished. There is plenty of content, but somehow there is a lack of polish. For such an illustrious mathematician, one would have expected more story, more anecdote, mor ...more
Very enjoyable, with some interesting perspectives on history from a great man. The most interesting part by far was his perspective on Germany's mathematics community changing as the Nazis came to power. I didn't understand all of it, but I also absorbed some interesting math along the way.
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