Volume: 101; 2021; 169 pp; Softcover
MSC: Primary 01; 97;
Print ISBN: 978-1-4704-6266-6
Product Code: SPEC/101
List Price: $55.00
AMS Member Price: $41.25
MAA Member Price: $41.25
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-4704-6319-9
Product Code: SPEC/101.E
List Price: $55.00
AMS Member Price: $41.25
MAA Member Price: $41.25
Supplemental Materials
The Impact and Legacy of The Ladies’ Diary (1704–1840): A Women’s Declaration
Share this pageFrank J. Swetz
MAA Press: An Imprint of the American Mathematical Society
The Ladies' Diary was an annual almanac published in
England from 1704 to 1840. It was designed to provide useful
information to women; the subtitle reveals the purpose, Containing New
Improvements in Arts and Sciences, and Many Entertaining Particulars:
Designed for the Use and Diversion of the Fair Sex. It contained
meteorological and astronomical information, recipes, health and
medical advice, scientific information, and mathematical puzzles and
problems. Readers were encouraged to, and did, send solutions and
original problems and puzzles of their own for publication in the next
year's issue.
Frank Swetz, one of the founding Editors of Convergence,
the MAA's online journal of the history of mathematics, wondered about
the historical and sociological conditions that supported The
Ladies' Diary. In this volume he unearths the story of the
Diary's creation and of the community of people surrounding
it. We learn who the editors were and something about the
contributors and readers. Swetz explores the sociological and
cultural circumstances that made this unique almanac full of
mathematics popular for over a century. As a dynamic forum for
mathematics learning, teaching, and understanding, the Diary
remains a milestone in the development of British mathematics.
Readership
Graduate students and researchers interested in the history of mathematics.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Impact and Legacy of The Ladies' Diary (1704-1840): A Women's Declaration
- Cover Cover11
- Title page iii5
- Copyright iv6
- Contents vii9
- Foreword xi13
- Preface xiii15
- Chapter 1. A Fortuitous Encounter 119
- Chapter 2. The Ladies’ Diary: or Woman’s Almanack: A New Kind of Publication {For those unfamiliar with this publication, just what was The Ladies’ Diary?} 725
- Chapter 3. The Ladies’ Diary: Conception and Evolution {How did the editors shape and control the direction in which the Diary developed and progressed?} 1533
- Chapter 4. “Delightful and Entertaining Particulars”—Problem Solving {Why enigmas and mathematical problems?} 3553
- Chapter 5. Mathematics, Education, and Women in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century England {What were women’s opportunities to study and know mathematics?} 5775
- Chapter 6. The Ladies’ Diary as a Facet in the Mathematical and Scientific Transition of the Era {What intellectual value did the Diary possess?} 7997
- Chapter 7. “Dia” as a Mathematical Testament {Did the Diary reflect and support the mathematical reforms taking place during the span of its publication?} 95113
- Chapter 8. Women and the Diary {Did the Diary really serve the needs of women?} 113131
- Chapter 9. The Ladies’ Diary, a Noteworthy Heritage {So what did we learn about the Diary’s effects and societal impact?} 121139
- Epilogue 129147
- Appendix A. Selected Word Puzzles from The Ladies’ Diary 131149
- Appendix B. Sample of a Complete Set of Ladies’ Diary Mathematical Exercises 135153
- Appendix C. Selected Problems with Worked Solutions 141159
- Bibliography 153171
- Endnotes 161179
- Back Cover Back Cover1188