Carl Friedrich Gauss: Titan of Science

by G. Waldo Dunnington, Jeremy Gray, Fritz-Egbert Dohse

This biography of Gauss, by far the most comprehensive in English, is the work of a professor of German, G. Waldo Dunnington, who devoted most of his scholarly career to studying the life of Germany's greatest mathematician. The author was inspired to pursue this project at the age of twelve when he learned from his teacher in Missouri that no full biography of Gauss existed at the time. His teacher was Gauss's great granddaughter, Minna Waldeck Gauss. Long out of print and almost impossible to find on the used book market, this valuable piece of scholarship is being reissued in an augmented form with introductory remarks, an expanded and updated bibliography, and a commentary on Gauss's mathematical diary, by the eminent British mathematical historian, Jeremy Gray.

Genres: Biography, Mathematics, Science, Nonfiction

595 pages, Hardcover

First published July 31, 2004

Reviews

[Andrew Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit disappointing and showing its age. One would like to learn a bit more about Gauss’ contribution to modern mathematics and physics. Instead, we get a lot of detailed information about his life (which admittedly is expected from a biography), family and friends, with mostly only the references to his work, published originally in Latin. A good addition to Gauss’ specialists, but not enough for a Gauss’ novice.

[Richard Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having a doctorate in mathematical physics was helpful in navigating some of the Physics-related concepts in this book. But when confronted with the more purely mathematical concepts as in Gauss's Theory of Numbers, I was forced to take pencil and paper in hand, and dive in. I always was fascinated by these 'mathetical abstractions' which have proven their utility in future scientific disciplines. Mostly the book gave me what I really wanted: greater insight into how a true mathematical mind operates. In this respect, the book does not fail.
This book is not a 'light read.'
But if you've got the wherewithal, it can inspire even a novice to begin a lifelong journey.
A journey into what science today recognizes as the new frontier for advancing physics, chemistry, molecular biology, and computer science: mathematics.
A not-so-new concept.

[Joseph Schrock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought and began reading this biography of Carl Friedrich Gauss in 2012, but the writing style and the tedious nature of the technical discussions were so off-putting for me that I quit reading the book (after a little over 100 pages) for close to 10 years. Eventually, I went back to reading the book and finally finished it in Feb. 2023.

It is not to be doubted that Gauss was a mathematician and physicist of the highest order – being a competitor to the status held by Isaac Newton. I, as a mere mathematical hobbyist, found this book to be a bit daunting to tackle. There are few actual mathematical equations or formulas in the book, but the highly technical discussions, along with a dry and terse writing style, were what rendered the book, for me, a somewhat tough read.

This biography is filled with technical information about Gauss’ achievements and his life, but I wished for a biography of that mathematician that is somewhat more palatable. But biographies of Gauss are rather rare. I certainly would not expect this book to have a very good sales rank on Amazon, but it is packed with information.

[Niranjana Sundararajan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't the book I was looking for.

Although I've read a lot of biographies that heavily detail the lives of their subjects, this is the only one I've found that is so exceptionally dull that I've had to give up on it, at least for now.

The author actually mentions this in one of the early chapters (or the introduction, I forget where) that Gauss' life was quite steady and undramatic - other than his genius, his life was pretty mundane. While this was certainly a point that made me want to read about him even more, it doesn't make for very engaging read, especially when so many details seem to be "irrelevant" to his "main story". But maybe that is the point? I'm not sure.

I might come back to this book when I've had a preliminary understanding of his life and contributions, to study more in depth about him. But for now, this volume is unnecessarily dense for me!

[James Lancelot · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was slow at the beginning and I felt overwhelmed by all the names and places. The later chapters felt much easier than the early ones. As I was reading I got the sense that Dunnington was writing with future historians in mind because he included so many names, dates, places and exact numbers. He seemed to strive for exhaustive lists of things.

After I finished the book and started writing this review I remembered that there was an introduction written specially for the 2004 reprint—it was written by Jeremy Gray, a historian of mathematics—and there were some (almost) modern-day criticisms. When I reread the introduction, I felt myself nodding my head at each of them and decided that I couldn't do any better than Gray. So I'll quote him in this review.

This book was originally published in 1955, but in 2004 Gray still has high praise for it:

"Dunnington's biography of Gauss was first published almost 50 years ago, and remains unrivalled for its combined breadth, depth, and accuracy. It was the product of three decades of labour on substantially all the known sources, and it is regrettable that it has been so long out of print... Dunnington's book remains the core of any attempt to understand Gauss and his work. Walter Kaufmann Buhler, [a later biographer], rightly called Dunnington's book 'by far the most important' of the major biographies of Gauss."

A few of his criticisms (I agree with them all, but I won't pretend that I came up with any of them on my own) are:

"Nonetheless, Dunnington's book has become dated in two significant ways. A modern reader is likely to feel that he became too close to his subject, and that he did not always explain the mathematics with sufficient clarity... Dunnington comes over as Gauss's best friend, excusing and explaining away all the imperfections of his hero. As he endearingly admits in the opening words of the Foreword, he 'must plead guilty to a bias in favor of Gauss.'... [A] feeling that Dunnington is partisan lingers throughout the book. What sort of a colleague was he among the astronomers? When he surveyed Hanover? During the affair of the Gottingen Seven, when two of his close friends were dismissed from their jobs at the University of Gottingen for refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the reactionary Duke of Cumberland? There is no one, true view of a person. There are only multiple, often contradictory views, and Dunnington's is partial, perhaps inevitably so."

Also:

"[A] haze diffuses over the scientific achievements. Was there no one doing comparable work at the time? Had Abel really only come one-third of the ay that Gauss had managed in creating a theory of elliptic functions?... Dunnington is not given to outright exaggeration, but contemporary mathematicians and scientists are kept in the shade unless they are also close friends or colleagues of Gauss, and mentioned as often for their personal views as the qualities of their work. This not only misses the opportunity to make Gauss's work stand out more clearly by comparison with the best of what else was being done at the time, it hinders the readers' chances of assessing Gauss's influence."

For my own part, I read this book because Gauss has been called "The Prince of Mathematicians", because the title was so alluring (unfortunately "haze" really does diffuse "over the scientific achievements") and because the book was recommended by Morris Kline (another historian of mathematics who I quite like) in a book titled Mathematics for the Nonmathematician. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants an example of the nobility (for lack of a better word) of a scientist.