Gerald B Folland

Abstract:  spirit is always mathematical. This is very possibly the best "mathematics for the non-mathematician" book that I have seen---and that includes popular (non-textbook) books that one would find in a general bookstore. This one doesn't lapse into the pitfalls often found in such books. It preaches the beauty and fascination of mathematics in the introduction and then follows through. It does not cut mathematical corners: Its explanations are complete and accurate, its theorems are stated precisely, and its proofs are intuitive and often colloquially presented without being sloppy. The book could also be of benefit to mathematicians. Teachers often say that they learn something new every time they teach a course, but they usually mean something subtle. I have to confess that I learned some non-subtle things from reading this book. For example, I hadn't heard of Newcomb's Paradox or Conway tiles, and I hadn't realized that no one knows whether the builders of the Parthenon were consciou