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Counting : Humans, History and the Infinite Lives of Numbers - David Thorpe

Counting

Humans, History and the Infinite Lives of Numbers

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Available: 18th July 2024

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Available: 18th July 2024

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WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO COUNT? WHY ARE HUMANS THE ONLY SPECIES ON EARTH THAT CAN DO IT? WHERE DID COUNTING COME FROM? HOW HAS IT SHAPED SOCIETIES ALONG THE WAY? AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Counting is an innovative, erudite, world-wrapping journey through humanity's marvellous ability to impose numbers on things. Acclaimed historian and mathematician Benjamin Wardhaugh draws on stories from the Stone Age to cyberspace in pursuit of the elusive, fascinating, endlessly diverse history of human counting.

Starting with the roots of counting in human brains, bodies and environments, Wardhaugh tours us around the world and through time while exploring the different flavours of counting that have developed over millennia. We meet the makers of bead necklaces in ancient South Africa, the inventors of writing in the world ' s first metropolis, and the 'counter culture' of classical Athens. We see counting used - and changed - by Indian scholars, Chinese peasants and Papuan shopkeepers; we meet the distinctive numerate agendas of Mayan kings, US governments and Korean vloggers.

Weaving these stories together, Wardhaugh shows how cultures have shaped counting, and how counting has shaped culture, in a rich tapestry spanning thousands of years. This is the vast story of human attempts to find some order in an unruly world; or, perhaps, to impose on a reluctant world the order that humans find within themselves. It is a history as wide, deep and tangled as that of humanity itself

In Counting, Wardhaugh presents a fascinating study of mathematics and its role in shaping civilisation. This top non-fiction book reflects his teaching skills and profound understanding of the subject, offering a unique philosophy of counting as a means to impose order in a chaotic world.

For fans of Johann Hari (Stolen Focus), Anne Applebaum (Twilight of Democracy), and Andrea Wulf (Magnificent Rebels).

HarperCollins 2024

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