Overview

The 1990s saw a great increase in the number of books on mathematical subjects addressed to the general public. The content of these books was, for the most part, readily understood by anyone with a basic high school background in mathematics. The following essay provides an overview of this book-publishing and public-interest phenomenon, including discussion of the types of general mathematical works published, focusing on the various formats used by their authors rather than providing an exhaustive bibliography, and brief comment on some specific representative titles. Finally, some reasons will be offered to explain why the 1990s witnessed such a bumper crop of mathematical books.

Background

One type of book that was very popular in the 1990s addresses the history of mathematics, either through biographies of mathematicians or the history of...