Angles of Reflection: A Memoir of Logic and a Mother's Love - Hardcover

Richards, Joan L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0716794616 ISBN 13: 9780716794615

Publisher: W. H. Freeman, 2001

Synopsis

At the time her nine year old son was diagnosed with a brain tumour, Joan Richards was deeply involved in writing a book about the life and work of the 19th-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. A memoir, "Angles of Reflection" portrays a woman deeply enmeshed in two male dominated worlds, 19th-century mathematics and 20th-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 re-evaluate her own career and relationships. In the process, she gives new meaning to the term "applied mathematics" by drawing life lessons from De Morgan's logic, Newton's absolute space and time, and Leibnitz's relative visions of reality.

About this title

About the Author

Joan L. Richards is an associate professor of the history of mathematics at Brown University. She is the author of Mathematical Visions: The Pursuit of Geometry in Victorian England.

From the Back Cover

Angles of Reflection
A Memoir of Logic and a Mother's Love
Joan L. Richards

"Extremely well written ... It reads like a medical mystery and horror story all in one [and] will keep you reading right to the end."
--The Providence Sunday Journal

"A compelling story ... Richards brings spirituality to mathematics and physics as she ponders the demands of motherhood and a career."
--Booklist

"An exceptionally articulate study of how we deal with what we cannot control."
--Publishers Weekly

Joan L. Richards is an associate professor of the history of mathematics at Brown University. She is the author of Mathematical Visions: The Pursuit of Geometry in Victorian England.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. H. Freeman
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0716794616
• ISBN 13: 9780716794615
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288