Crest of the Peacock Intro
Three things that surprised me (and why): Thing the first: I was surprised by the initial focus of the book on the direct impact of colonialism and how current scholars are working to decolonize. It makes complete sense as a starting point for this sort of text, but my experience with mathematics instruction generally had prepared me for a text that was not so self-critical. It makes me think of how those colonial impacts are still felt today with what we consider to be "real mathematics" and the European focus on formalism and the mathematics of the academic class. I'm always very inspired by people without formal math training who think in new, creative, mathematical ways. A historical example of this would be Ramanujan, for example. Thing the second: I didn't realize that Spain was closely connected with Arab mathematics. I don't have a good understanding of the political history of that time beyond a simplistic understanding of what was happening in Europe and...