Book details overlooked contributions of women and people of colour to maths

racional · 2024-07-29T18:56:57 1722279417

Reviewed also in the NYT:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/24/books/review/the-secret-l...

bell-cot · 2024-07-29T19:24:54 1722281094

Not to say that western history treats women or coloured folks well, but the article's lead para should never have been allowed into print:

> Pythagoras. Isaac Newton. Alan Turing. John Nash. Mathematicians rarely become famous but those who do receive celebrity treatment are invariably white men. Turing was played by Benedict Cumberbatch on the big screen; Nash by Russell Crowe.

The Guardian overlooked: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Figures Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Knew_Infinity And probably more that I'm insufficiently familiar with.

And you need to use a very modern definition of "white" to call Pythagoras that, since he was an Ionian Greek.