Augustin-Louis Cauchy - A Biography

A great difficulty facing a biographer of Cauchy is that of delineating the curious interplay between the man, his times, and his scientific endeavors. Professor Belhoste has succeeded admirably in meeting this challenge and has thus written a vivid biography that is both readable and informative. His subject stands out as one of the most brilliant, versatile, and prolific fig ures in the annals of science. Nearly two hundred years have now passed since the young Cauchy set about his task of clarifying mathematics, extending it, applying it wherever possible, and placing it on a firm theoretical footing. Through Belhoste's work we are afforded a detailed, rather personalized picture of how a first rate mathematician worked at his discipline - his strivings, his inspirations, his triumphs, his failures, and above all, his conflicts and his errors.Table of Content1 The Formative Years.- 2 Sojourn at Cherbourg.- 3 The Waiting Room of the Academy.- 4 A Man of Science.- 5 Teaching at the École Polytechnique.- 6 From the Theory of Waves to the Theory of Light.- 7 From the Theory of Singular Integrals to the Calculus of Residues.- 8 A Mathematician in the Congrégation.- 9 Exile in Turin.- 10 The Education of the Duke of Bordeaux.- 11 The Legitimist Mathematician.- 12 Scientific Works from 1838 to 1848.- 13 Practices and Principles in Cauchy’s Works.- 14 The Final Years 1848–1857.- Notes.- Appendix I: Presentation Notes of Various Works Presented by Cauchy to the Académie des Sciences (1816–1830).- Appendix II: Documents on Cauchy’s Analysis Course at the École Polytechnique (1816–1819).- Appendix III: Selection of Letters from Cauchy to Various Persons (1821–1857).- Appendix IV: Unpublished Documents on Cauchy’s Candidacies to the Collège de France (1843 and 1850–1851).- Manuscript Sources and Bibliography.- Abbreviations.Springer Book ArchivesSpringer Book Archives