Karen Hunger Parshall

In 1900, Germany was the center of the mathematical universe; in 1950, the United States was. I had attributed the change in large part to the number of mathematicians who fled from the Nazis to the USA. However, the theme of The New Era in American Mathematics is: "The emigres did not make the American mathematical research community. It was already fully formed at the time of their arrival." I think the book makes its case for this claim.

Miscellaneous remarks:

1) Be forewarned: Immediately upon release, the paperback edition of this book is print-on-demand. The text is printed in a small grayish font, and all the photographs look like they've come from an old photocopier.
2) The book uses footnotes rather than endnotes, which would have been a great convenience if the notes had much content, but it is not much help when they’re mainly just bibliographical, as they are here.
3) On page 410 there is a map of the United States with gray dots for major centers of mathematics and black dots for secondary centers. But the map is deceiving because while the dots show up in the right states, they can’t be counted on being any more accurately placed than that.
4) The authors have consistent trouble with a few names: “Adolph” Hitler, Herbert “Siefert”, Erich “Kampke”, and (my favorite) “Joan” Baez.
5) The Acknowledgments thank those who “poured over the manuscript”. Maybe we should rethink the tradition of writing the Acknowledgments after the proofreading is done.
6) The authors talk about the Cold War becoming “ever-more-frigid” with the launch of Sputnik and sliding “precipitously into the deep freeze” with the introduction of loyalty oaths, misunderstanding, I think, what the “Cold” in “Cold War” meant.… (mais)