Rating: 
Summary: Its a good "general intrest" math book, but nothing more.
Review: I purchased this book while in high school, and I felt it was an intresting book as a general refrence and trivia about mathematics history. I attempted (as I remember) to read the book cover to cover but only got about half way through. It did serve as an occasional (but mostly never) reference in some of my early college math courses like differential equations and multi-variable calculus.
However, with respect to coverage of more intresting (perhaps more 'modern' mathematics), there is virtually none (lest we call elementary linear algebra 'modern'). I do not think it would be appropriate as a refrence for any college courses beyond the aformentioned introductary levels, but again, it serves its purpose more for the pre-college/general audience individaul. I do not agree that if you have had no exposure to calculus that this book would be all to terribly difficult.
The first half of the book can be understood with knowledge up to school trig/analysis course. Of course, you will probably not learn the material either, but it is indeed possible (at least in my opinion) that the general 'gist' of the material can be comprehended with school knowledge of mathematics.
Overall, I would have preferred that they would have covered logic/proofs and axiomitized systems more in the book as these aspects have much more to do with the development of math (and especially the modern incarnations of algerba and analysis), further the true beauty in mathematics lies in the logic and proofs. Instead the author dives into topics such as a survey of specific types of trigonometeric mappings (I felt the sections on trig and conics were a bit excessive relative to other topics in mathematics that were just brushed upon or ignored entirely).
Yet, for the price, and for the expected audience, the book defintilly more then gives the reader his/her moneys worth. It is indeed full of many illustrations and background history on the various topics of school mathematics and should serve the reader well as a way to enligthen themselves of the topic of mathematics.
Rating:
Summary: Best math book I've ever used
Review: "Mathematics from the Birth of Numbers" is absolutely the best math book I've ever used. It explains math concepts and problems from counting and arithmatic through algebra, geometry, trigonometry, elementary annalysis and calculus in simple, easy to understand language. I have found this book to be invaluable to my own understanding of these basic mathematics, and when teaching or tutoring others. The explanations are simple and acurate.I would recomend using this book as a course textbook for middle school, high school, and early college level math classes.
Rating:
Summary: Unlimited Riches
Review: Gullberg gathered and organized this book over a ten year period. It is a charming compendium. I have been looking things up in it and browsing it for five years, and there are many areas I have not yet touched. I will be enjoying it for another five or ten years. Why do I like it? Here are five reasons, one for each star. First, it has wealth of facts and formulas, and it gives you a bit of history with the material. It is nice to see where things came from. Second, if you need to look something up, this is a good place to find it. Third, if you have studied mathematics or used it, you will meet your old friends on these pages, and you will learn something new about some of them. Fourth, if you are keen about the subject, you will see interesting ways of drawing connections between various results and subjects in this book. Fifth, the author's good humor and broad culture shine on these pages so that reading this book is a pleasure. Editorial reviewer Donald Albers got it right in his Scientific American review when he said that if you were to have just one mathematics book on your shelf, this would be the book to have. I have many mathematics books. This is one that I keep close at hand in my office. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Unlimited Riches
Review: Gullberg gathered and organized this book over a ten year period. It is a charming compendium. I have been looking things up in it and browsing it for five years, and there are many areas I have not yet touched. I will be enjoying it for another five or ten years. Why do I like it? Here are five reasons, one for each star. First, it has wealth of facts and formulas, and it gives you a bit of history with the material. It is nice to see where things came from. Second, if you need to look something up, this is a good place to find it. Third, if you have studied mathematics or used it, you will meet your old friends on these pages, and you will learn something new about some of them. Fourth, if you are keen about the subject, you will see interesting ways of drawing connections between various results and subjects in this book. Fifth, the author's good humor and broad culture shine on these pages so that reading this book is a pleasure. Editorial reviewer Donald Albers got it right in his Scientific American review when he said that if you were to have just one mathematics book on your shelf, this would be the book to have. I have many mathematics books. This is one that I keep close at hand in my office. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent history and overview of math
Review: If you are interested in mathematics at all you must read this book. It manages to take a subject that can be downright boring to many, and turn it into an interesting account of math down through the ages. It not only provides the reader with a history of each topic in mathematics, as well as teaching about each topic, it also introduces the many, many men and women who have each advanced our knowledge of mathematics. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive Overview of Mathematics
Review: Let's put this book into perspective. At 1040ish pages, it
manages to cover the birth of numbers, algebra, geometry,
probability, differential and integral calculus including
multi-variables, trigonometry, matrices,
complex numbers, logarithms, numerical analysis, first and
second order differential equations... it goes on from there,
touching on a number of other topics. How many
textbooks is that from high school and college? Wow. Gulberg does it with style. Brief historical anecdotes,
references to the appropriate mathematicians, proofs that are
easy to follow and understand (I found one error), clear
examples in many cases. I read this book and felt like I came
away not only with an excellent review of the key components of
these areas of math, but a better understanding of the whys
and the hows and the whatfors of applications and proofs and
where it all came from. Maybe this book tested the limits of Dr Gulberg's mathematical
knowledge, as one reviewer suggested. Maybe not. The man was
busy doing surgery, too, and he's done a magnificent job of
putting together a book consisting of concepts that some people
never understand. No, this book doesn't include a lot of graduate school math.
But as a review of about 14 years worth of math for me, I was
thankful I didn't have to read 10,000 pages, but only 1/10th
that much. I think it will serve me well as a reference for when my children
are working on their homework, and it certainly has been
an entertaining review for me. Kudos, Doc.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive Overview of Mathematics
Review: Let's put this book into perspective. At 1040ish pages, it
manages to cover the birth of numbers, algebra, geometry,
probability, differential and integral calculus including
multi-variables, trigonometry, matrices,
complex numbers, logarithms, numerical analysis, first and
second order differential equations... it goes on from there,
touching on a number of other topics. How many
textbooks is that from high school and college? Wow. Gulberg does it with style. Brief historical anecdotes,
references to the appropriate mathematicians, proofs that are
easy to follow and understand (I found one error), clear
examples in many cases. I read this book and felt like I came
away not only with an excellent review of the key components of
these areas of math, but a better understanding of the whys
and the hows and the whatfors of applications and proofs and
where it all came from. Maybe this book tested the limits of Dr Gulberg's mathematical
knowledge, as one reviewer suggested. Maybe not. The man was
busy doing surgery, too, and he's done a magnificent job of
putting together a book consisting of concepts that some people
never understand. No, this book doesn't include a lot of graduate school math.
But as a review of about 14 years worth of math for me, I was
thankful I didn't have to read 10,000 pages, but only 1/10th
that much. I think it will serve me well as a reference for when my children
are working on their homework, and it certainly has been
an entertaining review for me. Kudos, Doc.
Rating: 
Summary: Like most mathematic books, frought with problems.
Review: Perhaps, as a math historian, or out of general interest, you would enjoy reading about the history of mathematical terms, forms and equations, but if you are trying to learn math, they just get in the way. There are many assumptions made. Such as on page 124, the author blurts out "Invert and multiply!" for no known reason (unless, of course, you already know). His explanation of Casting Out Nines does not explain why it is called this except if you "pick it up" by following the text through to the end. The examples shown don't explain the method for subtraction or multiplication and cause confusion. Other explanations make you wonder if what you are reading is correct or not. And you will not figure it out using this book. Like most math books, it throws new words, equations, methods and new words into a barrel, shakes it up, spills it out on a table and says, "There, I've explained it all!" Unfortunately, math with writing that can explain it rarely exist.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not for the unprepared
Review: The front flap of the book says that according to the author it is intended for those with no experience of the subject or those who think they have forgotton what they learned previously. My high school calculus, algebra, geometry and trigonometry were not enough to prevent a lot of frustration and inability to understand many steps in the logic. You need a year of college calculus at least to start on the book. I agree with the other reviewers that the book is well organized with a delightful writing style and lots of amusing illustrations. I will get back to it after studying more calculus.
Rating: 
Summary: An exhaustive pastiche
Review: This book has a great deal of breadth, but, sadly, very little depth. It serves well as an aid to one's memory, but is not a useful book from which to learn. I'm not displeased that I bought it, but it is not anywhere near as useful as I had hoped it would be. It contains a lot of historical tidbits (and hence serves as a kind of an index to the history of mathematics), but also contains a number of imprecisions and, sadly, some idiosyncratic notations.
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