Roman Duda

Imagine an in-house history of a mathematics department, only it's not just any old mathematics department but the seedbed of a major discipline, and the department was no ivory tower because while its scholars were working to make great mathematical discoveries the city was overrun three times by two hostile superpowers, killing many of the faculty in the process. That's what this book is like.

I've studied a fair bit of functional analysis, but seeing it discussed here in historical context was illuminating to me. The small portion of the book devoted to a somewhat technical discussion of advanced mathematics probably won't mean much to non-mathematicians, but the rest of the book might. The treatment of the Soviet and Nazi invasions is understated, but it would be hard to be unmoved by the accounts of all the Lvov mathematicians that the Nazis murdered. It makes those of us complaining about trying to do math during a pandemic feel a little foolish.

P.S. The photograph of Hugo Steinhaus on the cover makes him look quite a bit like Charles Dance.… (mer)