Concepts of Modern Mathematics
non-fiction work by Ian Stewart
Concepts of Modern Mathematics is a book by mathematician and science popularizer Ian Stewart about then-recent developments in mathematics. It was originally published by Penguin Books in 1975, updated in 1981, and reprinted by Dover publications in 1995 and 2015.
Overview
The book arose out of an extramural class that Ian Stewart taught at the University of Warwick about "Modern mathematics". In the 1995 Dover edition Stewart wrote that the aim of the class was:
to explain why the underlying abstract point of view had gained currency among research mathematicians, and to examine how it opened up entirely new realms of mathematical thought.
The book is aimed at non-mathematicians. However, there are frequent equations and diagrams and the level of presentation is more technical than some of Stewart's other popular books such as Flatterland. Topics covered include analytic geometry, set theory, abstract algebra, group theory, topology, and probability.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5158428. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1975, 1981, 1995 and 2015.
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This entry incorporates text from “Concepts of Modern Mathematics” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.