Georges Ifrah Explained

Georges Ifrah (1947 – 1 November 2019) was a teacher of mathematics, a French author and a self-taught historian of mathematics, especially numerals.

His work, From One to Zero: A Universal History of Numbers (1985, 1994) was translated into multiple languages, became an international bestseller, and was included in American Scientists list of "100 or so Books that shaped a Century of Science", referring to the 20th century.^[1] Despite popular acclaim, it has been broadly criticized by scholars.^{[2] [3]}

Publications

Several books devoted to numbers and history of numbers and number related topics including:

• 1981: Histoire Universelle des Chiffres (Paris)
  • English translation (1985): From one to zero. A universal history of numbers transl. by Lowell Bair. New York: Viking Penguin Inc. XVI, 503 pages. (Zentralblatt review: 0589.01001: "It is the richness in documents from both primitive and advanced cultures, which makes this publication unique.[…]a number of authors mentioned in the text are not cited in this bibliography. And in many cases the sources of illustrations remain anonymous".)
  • German translation (1986): Universalgeschichte der Zahlen transl. by Alexander von Platen. Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag. 580 pages. (Zentralblatt review 0606.01023.)
  • German translation (1989): Universalgeschichte der Zahlen. 600 pages. (Additional introduction and indices.) (Zentralblatt review: 0686.01001.)
  • Italian translation (1983): Storia universale dei numeri. Milano: Mondadori. 585 pages.
• 1985: Les chiffres ou l'histoire d'une grande invention Robert Laffont
  • "The history of numbers or the history of a great discovery" (abridged version? ≈260 pages)
  • Polish translation (1990): Dzieje liczby czyli historia wielkiego wynalazku translated by Stanisław Hartman. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich-Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk (Ossolineum). 260 pages. . (Zentralblatt review: 0758.01017.)
• 1994: Histoire universelle des chiffres, 2nd edition. (Seghers, puis Bouquins, Robert Laffont, 1994)
  • Now in two volumes: Vol I 633 pages (Zentralblatt review: 0955.01002), Vol II 412 pages (Zentralblatt review: 0969.68001).
  • Norwegian translation (1997): All verdens tall. Tallenes kulturhistorie. I, II. Translated by Anne Falken, Guri Haarr, Margrethe Kvarenes and Svanhild Solløs. Oslo: Pax Forlag. 1284 p. (1997). (set); (vol.1); (vol.2). (Zentralblatt review: 0933.01001)
  • English translation (1998): Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. Translated by David Bellos, E.F. Harding, Sophie Wood and Ian Monk. Harville Press, London, 1998 .
    • American edition of English tr., Volume 1 (2000): The Universal History of Numbers: From prehistory to the invention of the computer. Translated by David Bellos, E.F. Harding, Sophie Wood and Ian Monk. John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2000.
    • American edition of English tr, Volume 2 (2001): The Universal History of Computing: From the Abacus to the Quantum Computer with E. F. Harding. John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2001, (softcover) and (hardcover).

Notes and References

1. Morrison . Philip . Morrison . Phylis . November–December 1999 . 100 or so Books that shaped a Century of Science . dead . American Scientist . Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society . 87 . 6 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160305121326/http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/100-or-so-books-that-shaped-a-century-of-science . 5 March 2016 . Philip Morrison . 2010-06-15.
2. 0002-9920. 49. 1. 32–38. Dauben. Joseph. Georges Ifrah. Book Review: The Universal History of Numbers and The Universal History of Computing (part 1). Notices of the AMS. January 2002.
   0002-9920. 49. 2. 211–216. Dauben. Joseph. Georges Ifrah. Book Review: The Universal History of Numbers and The Universal History of Computing (part 2). Notices of the AMS. February 2002.
3. C. Philipp E. Nothaft: Medieval Europe’s satanic ciphers: on the genesis of a modern myth. British Journal for the History of Mathematics 35, 2020, .