The Music of Pythagoras

February 18, 2008
The task Ferguson (Tycho & Kepler
) takes on is formidable: to describe not only the ancient Greek mathematician and mystic Pythagoras, but also the entire sweep of the Pythagorean legacy, from his time to ours. Even if the book's subtitle is never quite justified, she has largely succeeded. This chatty and readable account bites off great chunks of history and science, from Platonists to string theory. No matter how engaging, however, the book still reads more like a series of facts than a coherent narrative. Best when she comes on like a good friend bursting with some amazing thing she can't wait to share (the passages on Bertrand Russell are particularly sharp and funny), Ferguson has a tendency to punt when a concept becomes difficult to explain; rather than delve into a piece of ancient geometry called the Delian problem, she says, “ lengthy text is needed to understand it.” Ferguson concludes with banal generalizations about faith versus science. Still, the book is winning, accessible and intermittently fascinating. B&w illus.

May 15, 2008
Through the insightful eyes of popular science writer Ferguson ("Tycho & Kepler; Measuring the Universe"), readers glimpse the enormous impact of the Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras and his followers and the ideas gathered around them. She describes the mythology that surrounded Pythagoras, as well as the facts behind the man, and how those myths changed over time but continued to influence natural inquiry. Covering thinkers from Aristotle to Kepler, Ferguson shows how Pythagorean themes played a role in their developing new ideas. This work is a joy to read and would be welcome in academic libraries and large public libraries. It is important to note that Ferguson's book is far more than a biography and cannot be compared with biographical works such as Christoph Riedweg's popular "Pythagoras: His Life, Teaching, and Influence".Eric D. Albright, Tufts Univ. Health Sciences Lib., Boston

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2008
The mystic Pythagoreans cast a long shadow through mathematical history. Mining commentary offered seemingly every century since Pythagoras lived, from about 570 to 500 BCE, science writer Ferguson acknowledges the fragmentary nature of evidence about the sage himself, but, having hit the books and visited Pythagoras traditional places of philosophizing (Samos and Croton in Italy), she successfully re-creates the Greek intellectual world in which Pythagoras and his secretive acolytes flourished. Discovering the orderly power of numbers, the Pythagorean project to equate mathematics with the cosmos explains its immortal allure. The beauty of Fergusons exploration is her expression of this seduction through time and civilizations up to the scientific present. Evoking Pythagoras pull on philosophers from Plato to Bertrand Russell, Ferguson shows how Pythagorean thought fascinated and even frightened great minds through the ages. The original Pythagoreans excited great hostility, and Russell was no fan either. A lively narrative and a bounty of information make Ferguson a must in popular mathematics.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)