This book reveals the rich collection of mathematical works located at the nation's first military school, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. It outlines the relevant history of the Academy, discusses the mathematics department and curriculum, and describes the development of the library during the nineteenth century. A major part of this book is an annotated catalog of the more than 1300 works published between 1496 and 1915 found in the West Point library. Mathematics and its instruction greatly influenced the development of the Academy, the technological growth of America's army, and the standards of the military profession. These events, in turn, were crucial to the overall development of mathematics, mechanics, and engineering during the nineteenth century in the United States. Three individuals played a prominent role in this chronicle: Sylvanus Thayer, Charles Davies, and Albert Church. Listed are rare and historically valuable works in a broad range of mathematical subjects. The collection clearly shows the strong European influence on the early Academy. Also listed are numerous textbooks by West Point faculty and graduates; significant contributions were made by these writers to algebra, geometry, calculus, descriptive geometry, mechanics, surveying, and mathematics education. This book provides an important resource for the general audience as well as for those in pursuit of more scholarly information. It contains many interesting photographs and valuable details about the West Point collection. It is a must-have for anyone interested in mathematical books and collections.

This volume is, as may be readily apparent, the fruit of many years’ labor in archives and libraries, unearthing rare books, researching Nachlässe, and above all, systematic comparative analysis of fecund sources. The work not only demanded much time in preparation, but was also interrupted by other duties, such as time spent as a guest professor at universities abroad, which of course provided welcome opportunities to present and discuss the work, and in particular, the organizing of the 1994 International Graßmann Conference and the subsequent editing of its proceedings. If it is not possible to be precise about the amount of time spent on this work, it is possible to be precise about the date of its inception. In 1984, during research in the archive of the École polytechnique, my attention was drawn to the way in which the massive rupture that took place in 1811—precipitating the change back to the synthetic method and replacing the limit method by the method of the quantités infiniment petites—significantly altered the teaching of analysis at this first modern institution of higher education, an institution originally founded as a citadel of the analytic method.