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 inspire and educate. Saunders Mac Lane's life covers nearly a century of mathematical developments. During the earlier part of the twentieth century, he participated in the exciting happenings in Göttingen---the Mecca of mathematics.
Logical Dilemmas - The Life and Work of Kurt Gödel
This authoritative biography of Kurt Goedel relates the life of this most important logician of our time to the development of the field. Goedel's seminal achievements that changed the perception and foundations of mathematics are explained in the context of his life from the turn of the century Austria to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
Composed at the end of the fourteenth century by an unknown author, The Saga of Grettir the Strong is one of the last great Icelandic sagas. With a mesmerizing combination of pagan ideals and Christian faith, it relates the tale of Grettir, an eleventh- century warrior struggling to hold on to the values of a heroic age as they are eclipsed by Christianity and a more pastoral lifestyle. Unable to settle into a community of farmers, Grettir becomes the aggressive scourge of both honest men and evil monsters—until, following a battle with the sinister ghost Glam, he is cursed to endure a life of tortured loneliness away from civilization, fighting giants, trolls, and berserks.
Tragedy and Hope - A History of the World in Our Time
Prof. Carroll Quigley's Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time was one of the most important historical and predictive works to appear in the 20th century. The book was also among the century's most misunderstood and under-appreciated works of historiography.
From the 11th century AD, East Asian armies made increasing use of exploding missiles and siege cannon to reduce the fortifications of their enemies. Some of these weapons were very similar to those used in Europe - for example, the heavy siege cannon used in the siege of P'yongyang during the Japanese invasion in the late 16th century. Others, like the Korean hwach'a carts mounting over a hundred rockets that were used to bombard the Japanese at Haengiu in 1593, were very different from their European contemporaries. This book details the design and use of the wide range of weaponry available during this period.
