“We must know, we will know!” declared David Hilbert in 1930, in his acceptance speech of his hometown’s honorary citizenship award. Perhaps his optimism was excessive; on the other hand, maybe he was just urging younger scientists to continue seeking knowledge, as he himself had done throughout his career. This book is about this quest —the pursuit of mathematical truth during the twentieth century – and about those who undertook this saga.

The 20th century mathematics is a wonderful tapestry consisting of new ideas together with some innovative applications of older ones. Although some of these ideas are counter-intuitive, in many cases they have found surprising, unexpected applications in problems of our everyday life.

However, more than anything else, this book is a tribute to those to whom we owe this knowledge. In spite of the current stereotype describing  mathematicians as lonely and eccentric scientists, this book presents a wide variety of characters — others were communicative, extroverted and playful, others were ascetic, solitary, and some were haunted by the terrifying events that marked the previous century.

As Hilbert himself said, in his emphatic 1900 lecture, let’s lift the veil and observe how history, human nature and mathematical ingenuity are intertwined, and how all these have directly affected the way we live, think and perceive the makings of nature.

Crete University press, 2024, 354 p.