Hilbert cover

Hilbert

by Constance Reid

If the life of any 20th century mathematician can be said to be a history of mathematics in his time, it is that of David Hilbert. To the enchanted young mathematicians and physicists who flocked to study with him in Gottingen before and between the World Wars, he seemed mathematics personified, the very air around him "scientifically electric." His remarkably prescient proposal in 1900 of twenty-three problems for the coming century set the course of much subsequent mathematics and remains a feat that no scientist in any field has been able to duplicate. When he died, Nature remarked that there was scarcely a mathematician in the world whose work did not derive from that of Hilbert. Constance Reid's classic biography is a moving, nontechnical account of the passionate scientific life of this man - from the early days in Konigsberg, when his revolutionary work was dismissed as "theology," to the golden years in Gottingen before Hitler came to power and within a few months destroyed the entire Hilbert school. The Copernicus paperback edition makes this book available to new generations of mathematicians who know the name Hilbert, which is everywhere in mathematics, but do not know the man.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?