Book recommendations on the history of mathematics?

[AnalyticalEngine]

I learned a lot of math in school, but it was all basically just how to copy techniques to solve problems. What I want to learn now is the more formal mathematics/proofs of these concepts, as well as the history of how various things came to be. Does anyone have any good book suggestions that cover this?

[Alphaville]

i’d do wikipedia. it’s tailor-made for this sort of thing. endless rabbit holes to pursue.

eg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mathematics
to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_mathematics
to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonia ... m_numerals and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plimpton_322
to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal#Modern_usage and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_triple
then
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclid
etc

and they’re on their annual fundraising drive right now. why not throw them a few bucks?

[ertyu]

I'm a fan of pop nonfiction that takes one simple concept and tells a story around it. For example, googling, "history of zero book" will yield a couple of titles that do this with the emergence and adoption of the number zero. Why we use x for the unknown has a pretty neat story, too.

[daylen]

The Princeton Companion to Mathematics (both pure and applied are great)
Rudin - Principles of Mathematical Analysis (complex and functional after this... Tao is another option)
Polya - How to Solve it
Tao - Solving Mathematical Problems
Jaynes - Probability Theory
Pinter - A Book of Abstract Algebra
Russell - Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy

Add a good linear algebra book and that covers foundations. I could also recommend more specialized sources if you have a goal in mind or just want to reach a bit.

[fiby41]

I would've said Springer series on history of mathematics but I'm biased because I've only opened books by 1 author from them.

[7Wannabe5]

World of Mathematics-Newman
The Works of Henri Poincare
The Most Elegant Equation-Stipp
The Theory that Would Not Die-McGrayne
The Book of Numbers-Conway

[AnalyticalEngine]

Thanks for the good recommendations everyone. I'll check these books out!

[simplex]

On the lighter side I can recommend "Alex's Adventures in Numberland". It focuses on a few math problems, and does it in a quite entertaining way.