The Honors Class: Hilbert's Problems and Their Solvers

The Honors Class: Hilbert's Problems and Their Solvers, Benjamin H. Yandell, 2002. 496 pp., $39 cloth. ISBN 1-56881141-1. A K Peters, 63 South Ave., Natick, MA 01760-4626, [phone].

Twentieth-century mathematics was greatly influenced by an address made by David Hilbert at the International Congress of Mathematicians held in Paris in 1900. In his speech, "Mathematical Problems," Hilbert outlined twenty-three unsolved problems "drawn from various branches of mathematics, from the discussion of which an advancement of science may be expected." In this book, Yandell has grouped the problems by mathematical category...