Counting, 9780008436506
Paperback
Humanity’s quest to count: a vast, world-shaping, millennia-spanning journey.
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Counting

humans, history and the infinite lives of numbers

$24.90

  • Paperback

    384 pages

  • Release Date

    27 October 2025

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Summary

The Order of Numbers: A Journey Through Humanity’s Fascination with Counting

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO COUNT? WHY ARE HUMANS THE ONLY SPECIES ON EARTH THAT CAN DO IT? WHERE DID COUNTING COME FROM? HOW HAS IT SHAPED SOCIETIES ALONG THE WAY? AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Counting is an innovative, erudite, world-wrapping journey through humanity’s marvelous ability to impose numbers on things. Acclaimed historian and mathematician Benjamin Wardhaugh draws on sto…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780008436506
ISBN-10:0008436509
Author:Benjamin Wardhaugh
Publisher:HarperCollins Publishers
Imprint:William Collins
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:384
Release Date:27 October 2025
Weight:270g
Dimensions:198mm x 129mm x 24mm
What They're Saying

Critics Review

Praise for The Book of Wonders:

‘An astonishingly readable and informative history of the greatest mathematical bestseller of all time, from ancient Greece to dark energy. The writing is vivid and the stories are gripping. Highly recommended!’

Ian Stewart, author of Significant Figures

‘Benjamin Wardhaugh is an excellent storyteller and his collected short story approach to the history of The Elements works splendidly… simultaneously educational, entertaining and illuminating … A highly desirable read for all those, both professional and amateur, who interest themselves in the histories of mathematics, science and knowledge … over almost two and a half millennia’

Thony Christie, The Renaissance Mathematicus

Praise for Gunpowder and Geometry:

‘Meticulous yet lively biography, even those who have never heard of its subject could hardly disagree’

Sunday Times

‘As this book argues persuasively, he changed a whole culture: by simple dint of his genial celebrity as well as a europhile passion for developments in France and elsewhere, he helped to elevate mathematics to a rank equal with the other sciences. It is impossible not to warm to such a man in Wardhaugh’s wryly sympathetic telling … Spirited and elegantly erudite’

Daily Telegraph

About The Author

Benjamin Wardhaugh

Benjamin Wardhaugh is a Fifty-pound Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. His research focuses on the history of numeracy and mathematics, and the ways mathematics influences and is a part of cultures. His work focuses mainly on topics in early modern Britain, including mathematical music theory in that period. He has taught in both the Mathematical Institute and the History Faculty. He is the author of several previous educational books.

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