Julia E. Diggins

This book doesn't really take off until it reaches the chapter about the Ionian Greeks. Previous chapters are constrained to be a bit too speculative. The treatment is suitable for middle schoolers. However, its tone of respect for these ancient geometers, even when the treatment is humorous, is much more characteristic of the '60s then of the current age, some 50 years on. The illustrations are in two colors, black and a rusty red, and are also rather respectful and unlike the caricatures that a more contemporary book would use. The mathematical diagrams are very pleasing to the eye and the mathematical presentation is overall quite good.… (mer)