Number Systems, Technology,

and Civilization

Phillip LeBel, Ph.D.

Emeritus Professor of Economics

Montclair State University

Montclair, New Jersey 07043

lebelp@montclair.edu

 

Course Sessions

Tuesdays

10:00-11:30 a.m.

October 11-November 1, 2022

 

Session 1

October 11

Number Systems in History

 

Session 2

October 18

The Evolution of Mathematics

Session 3

October 25

Technology in Number Systems

Session 4

November 1

Number Systems and the Future

 

Reading Resources

Number Systems, Technology, and Civilization

  • Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson (2012).  Why Nations Fail:  The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty.  (New York:  Crown Publishers).
  • Aczel, Amir D. (1999). God’s Equation:  Einstein, Relativity, and the Expanding Universe (New York:  Four Walls Eight Windows Publishers).
  • Aczel, Amir D. (1998).  Probability:  Why There Must Be Intelligent Life in the Universe.  (New York:  Harcourt Brace and Company).
  • Aczel, Amir D. (1996).  Fermat’s Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem.  (New York:  Four Walls Eight Windows Publishers).
  • Albert, David Z. (1994, 1992).  Quantum Mechanics and Experience.  (Cambridge, Mass.:  Harvard University Press).
  • Baggott, Jim (1993, 1992).  The Meaning of Quantum Theory.  (New York:  Oxford University Press).
  • Berger, Peter and Thomas Luckmann (1967, 1966).  The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise on the Sociology of Knowledge (New York:  Anchor Books).
  • Boyer, Carl B. (1959, 1949).  The History of the Calculus and Its Conceptual Development.  (New York: Dover Publications).
  • Calder, Nigel (1979).  Einstein’s Universe: Relativity made Plain – The Amazing Achievement of Albert Einstein and What It Means Today.  (New York:  The Viking Press)
  • Chuyev, Yuri V., Yuri B. Mikhaylov (1975).  Forecasting in Military Affairs:  A Soviet View. (Washington, D.C.:  U.S. Government Printing Office).
  • Daly, Herman E. (1977).  Steady-State Economics.  (San Francisco:  W.H. Freeman and Company).
  • Diamond, Jared (2006, 2005).  Collapse:  How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.  (New York:  Penguin Books).
  • Diamond, Jared (1999, 1997).  Guns, Germs, and Steel:  The Fates of Human Societies.  (New York:  W.W. Norton and Company).
  • Dupuy, Colonel T.H., US Army Retired (1979).  Numbers, Predictions and War:  Using History to Evaluate Combat Factors and Predict the Outcome of Battles.  (London:  MacDonald and Jane’s)
  • Ellul, Jacques (1964).  The Technological Society. (New York:  Vintage Books.)
  • Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas (1976, 1971).  The Entropy Law and the Economic Process.  (Cambridge, Mass.:  Harvard University Press).
  • Held, David (1987).  Models of Democracy. (Stanford, California:  Stanford University Press).
  • Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1980, 1979).  Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid: A Metaphorical Fugue on Minds and Machines in the Spirit of Lewis Carroll.  (New York:  Vintage Books).
  • Hodges, Henry (1992, 1970).  Technology in the Ancient World.  (New York:  Barnes and Noble Books).
  • Hogben, Lancelot (1993, 1937).  Mathematics for the Millions:  How to Master the Magic of Numbers.  (New York:  W.W. Norton and Company.
  • Ifrah, Georges (2000).  The Universal History of Numbers. (New York: John Wiley and Sons).
  • Keynes, John Maynard (2007, 1919).  The Economic Consequences of the Peace, with an Introduction by Paul A. Volcker.  (New York:  Skyhorse Publishing).
  • Kidwell, Peggy A., and Paul E. Ceruzzi (1994).  Landmarks in Digital Computing.  (Washington, D.C.:  Smithsonian Publishing).
  • Kipfer, Barbara Ann (2001, 1997).  The Order of Things:  How Everything in the World is Organized into Hierarchies, Structures, and Pecking Orders.  (New York:  Random House).
  • Kline, Morris (1982, 1980).  Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty.  (New York:  Oxford University Press).
  • Klingaman, William K. and Nicholas P. Klingaman (2013).  The Year Without Summer:  1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History.  (New York:  St. Martin’s Press).
  • Livio Mario (2003).  The Golden Ratio:  The Story of Phi, the World’s Most Astonishing Number (New York:  Broadway Books).
  • Mangel, Marc, and Colin W. Clark (1988).  Dynamic Modeling in Behavioral Ecology.  (Princeton, N.J.:  Princeton, New Jersey).
  • McKenzie, A.E.E. (1973, 1960).  The Major Achievements of Science.  (New York:  Touchstone Books).
  • Meigs, Russell (1998, 1982).  Trees and Timber in the Ancient Mediterranean World.  (Oxford, U.K.:  The Clarendon Press).
  • Menninger, Karl (1992, 1969). Number Words and Number Symbols: A Cultural History of Numbers. (New York:  Dover Books).
  • Miller, John H. and Scott E. Page (2007).  Complex Adaptive Systems:  An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life.  (Princeton, N.J.:  Princeton University Press).
  • Nettle, Daniel, and Suzanne Romaine (2000).  Vanishing Voices:  The Extinction of the World’s Languages (New York:  Oxford University Press).
  • Ore Oystein (1988, 1976, 1948). Number Theory and its History (New York:  Dover Books)
  • Prigogine, Ilya (1997, 1996).  The End of Certainty:  Tie, Chaos, and the New Laws of Nature.  (New York:  The Free Press).
  • Resnikoff, H.L. and R.O. Wells, Jr. (1984, 1973). Mathematics in Civilization.  (New York:  Dover Books).
  • Routledge, Robert (1989).  Discoveries and Inventions of the 19th Century.  (New York:  Crescent Books).
  • Schumpeter, Joseph A. (1961, 1934, 1911). The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle.  (New York:  Galaxy Books for Harvard University Press).
  • Seife, Charles (2000).  Zero:  The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. (New York:  Penguin Books).
  • Shiller, Robert J. (2000).  Irrational Exuberance.  (Princeton, N.J.:  Princeton University Press).
  • Smiley, Jane (2000, 1997). The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection, with an Introduction by Robert Kellogg (New York:  Viking Penguin Books).
  • Smith, Bruce D. (1998, 1995).  The Emergence of Agriculture.  (New York:  W.H. Freeman for the Scientific American Library.
  • Snow, C.P.  (1969, 1959).  Two Cultures and a Second Look.  (New York:  Cambridge University Press).
  • Stewart, Ian (2008). The Story of Mathematics:  From Babylonian Numerals to Chaos Theory.  (London:  Quercus Publishing).
  • Swade, Doron (2000).  The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer.  (New York:  Penguin Books).
  • Thompson, D’Arcy Wentworth (1991, 1942).  On Growth and Form: The Complete Revised Edition.  (New York:  Dover Books).
  • Weinberg, Steven (1992).  Dreams of a Final Theory: The Search for the Fundamental Laws of Nature.  (New York:  Pantheon Books).
  • Williams, Ann, and G.H. Martin, editors (1992, 1000).  The Domesday Book, A Complete Translation (New York:  Penguin Books).
  • Young, W. Peyton (1999).  Individual Strategy and Social Structure:  An Evolutionary Theory of Institutions.  (Princeton, N.J.:  Princeton University Press)

 

History, Politics, and Social Affairs
  1. Ahamed, Liaquat (2009).  Lords of Finance – The Bankers Who Broke the World. (New York:  Penguin Books)
  2. Ajami, Fouad (1998). The Dream Palace of the Arabs – A Generation’s Odyssey.  (New York: Pantheon Books).
  3. Ashburn, Percy Moreau (1980, 1947). The Ranks of Death – A Medical History of the Conquest of America.  (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:  The Porcupine Press for Coward-McCann, Inc.).
  4. Baer, Robert (2004, 2003).  Sleeping with the Devil – How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude.  (New York:  Three Rivers Press).
  5. Bailyn, Bernard (2012). The Barbarous Years – The People of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations,1600-1675.  (New York Alfred A. Knopf)
  6. Barry, John M. (2005, 2004). The Great Influenza – The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History.  (New York:  Penguin Books)
  7. Bartlett, Bruce (1994). “How Excessive Government Killed Ancient Rome”, Cato Journal 14:2 (Fall), pp. 287-303)
  8. Beard, Mary (2015).  SPQRA History of Ancient Rome.  (Liverlight Publishing Corporation, Division of W.W. Norton and Company).
  9. Berman, Paul (2003).  Terror and Liberalism.  (New York:  W.W. Norton and Company).
  10. Bernanke, Ben S., Timothy Geithner, and Henry M. Paulson, Jr. (2019). Firefighting – The Financial Crisis and Its Lessons.  (New York:  Penguin Books for Random House).
  11. Bernstein, Peter L. (2005).  Capital Ideas – The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street.  (New York:  W.W. Norton and Company)
  12. Bernstein, Peter L. (1998, 1996).  Against the Gods – The Remarkable Story of Risk.  (New York:  W.W. Norton and Company)
  13. Booth, William James (1994). “On the Idea of the Moral Economy”, American Political Science Review 88:3 (September), pp. 653-667.
  14. Bradley, James (2009).  The Imperial Cruise – A Secret History of Empire and War.  (Boston:  Back Bay Books for Little Brown and Company).
  15. Byers, Michael (2005). War Law – Understanding International Law and Armed Conflict. (New York:  Grove Press).
  16. Caro, Robert A. (2002). The Years of Lyndon Johnson – Master of the Senate. (New York:  Alfred A. Knopf).
  17. Caro, Robert A. (1990). The Years of Lyndon Johnson – Means of Ascent.  (New York:  Vintage Books for Random House Publishers).
  18. Caro, Robet A. (1982, 1981). The Years of Lyndon Johnson – The Path to Power.  (New York:  Vintage Books for Random House Publishers).
  19. Chomsky, Noam (2000).  Rogue States  The Rule of Force in World Affairs.  (Cambridge, Mass.:  South End Press).
  20. Croston, Glenn (2012).  The Real Story of Risk – Adventures in a Hazardous World. (Amherst, New York:  Prometheus Books).
  21. Dash, Mike (1999). Tulipomania – The Story of the World’ Most Coveted Flower and the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused.  (New York:  Three Rivers Press).
  22. Djilas, Milovan (1969, 1957).  The New Class – An Analysis of the Communist System.  (New York:  Praeger Publishers).
  23. Fisk, Robert (2006).  The Great War for Civilisation – The Conquest of the Middle East.  (New York:  Alfred A. Knopf
  24. Foucault, Michel (1973, 1965).  Madness and Civilization – A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (New York: Vintage Books).
  25. Fox, Justin (2009).  The Myth of the Rational Market – A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street.  (New York:  HarperCollins Publishing).
  26. Gaibulloev, Khusrav, and Todd Sandler (2019). “What We Have Learned About Terrorism since 9/11”, Journal of Economic Literature 57:2, pp. 275-328.
  27. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. (2012, 1987).  The Classic Slave Narratives – The Life of Olaudah Equiano, The History of Mary Prince, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.  (New York:  Signet Classics for the New American Library division of Random House).
  28. Garrett, Laurie (1994).  The Coming Plague – Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance.  (New York:  Penguin Books).
  29. Genovese, Eugene D. (1965, 1961).  The Political Economy of Slavery.  (New York: Vintage Books for Random House).
  30. Gerges, Fawaz A. (2017, 2016).  A History of ISIS. (Princeton, N.J.:  Princeton University Press).
  31. Goldsworthy, Adrian (2016).  Pax Romana – War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World.  (New Haven, Connecticut:  Yale University Press).
  32. Goldsworthy, Adrian (2004, 2003).  In the Name of Rome – The Men Who Won the Roman Empire.  (London:  Phoenix Books for Orion Books and Weidenfeld and Nicholson).
  33. Gibbon, Edward (1985, 1952, 1788). The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. (New York:  Penguins Books).
  34. Harari, Yuval Noah (2018, 2017). Homo Deus - A Brief History of Tomorrow.  (New York:  Harper Perennial Paper editions).
  35. Hourani, Albert (1991).  A History of The Arab Peoples.  (New York:  MJF Books).
  36. Huillery, Elise (2009). “History Matters: The Long-Term Impact of Colonial Public Investments in French West Africa” American Economics Journal 1:2, pp. 170-215.
  37. Huntington, Samuel P. (2003, 1996).  The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.  (New York:  Simon and Schuster Paper editions).
  38. Kagan, Robert (2012).  The World America Made.  (New York:  Alfred A. Knopf)
  39. Karnow, Stanley (1983).  Vietnam – A History – The First Complete Account of Vietnam at War.  (New York: Viking Press).
  40. Kennedy, Paul (1989, 1987)  The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers.  (New York:  Vintage Books for Random House).
  41. Kershaw, Stephen P. (2013). A Brief History of the Roman Empire – Rise and Fall.  (New York:  Little Brown Publishers).
  42. Khalili, Jim Al (2011).  The House of Wisdom – How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance (New York: The Penguin Press).
  43. Kindleberger, Charles P. (1996, 1989, 1978). Manias, Panics, and Crashes – A History of Financial Crises.  (New York:  John Wiley and Sons).
  44. Larson, Kate Clifford (2003). Harriet Tubman – Portrait of an American Hero – Bound for the Promised Land.  (New York: One World Books for Random Housing Publishing).
  45. Lewis, Bernard (2003). The Crisis of Islam – Holy War and Unholy Terror.  (New York:  Modern Library).
  46. Lewis, Bernard (2002). What Went Wrong? – Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response.  (New York:  Oxford University Press).
  47. Lyons, Jonathan (2009).  The House of Wisdom – How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization. (New York: Bloomsbury Press).
  48. Mackay, Charles (1980, 1841).  Extraordinary Popular Delusions, and the Madness of Crowds.  (New York:  Three Rivers Press).
  49. Macmillan, Margaret (2002, 2001).  Paris 1919 – Six Months That Changed the World.  (New York:  Random House).
  50. Malvazzi, Aldobrandino (1927). “Italian Colonies and Colonial Policy” Journal of the royal Institute of International Affairs 6:4 (July), pp. 233-245
  51. Markoe, Glenn E. (2000).  The Phoenicians.  (Berkeley, California:  University of California Press).
  52. McDermott, Rose, James H. Fowler, and Oleg Smirnov (2008), “On the Evolutionary Origin of Prospect Theory Preferences”, The Journal of Politics 70:2 (April), 335-350.
  53. Miles, Richard (2011). Carthage Must Be Destroyed – The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization.  (New York: Penguin Group for Viking Press).
  54. Morgan, David (2007, 1990, 1986). The Mongols.  (Malden, Massachusetts:  Blackwell Publishing).
  55. Muller, Jerry Z. (2002).  The Mind and the Market – Capitalism in Western Thought.  (New York:  Anchor Books for Random House Publishers).
  56. Nau, Henry R. (1992, 1990)  The Myth of America’s Decline – Leading the World Economy into the 1990s.  (New York:  Oxford University Press).
  57. Newhouse, John (2003).  Imperial America – The Bush Assault on the World Order.  (New York:  Alfred A. Knopf).
  58. Rai, Milan (2002).  War Plan – Ten Reasons Against War on Iraq.  (New York:  Verso Books).
  59. Raspail, Jean (1995, 1987, 1975).  The Camp of the Saints.  (Petoskey, Michigan:  The Social Contract Press).
  60. Riley, Dylan, and Rebecca Jean Emigh (2002). “Post-Colonial Journeys: Historical Roots of Immigration and Integration “, Comparative Sociology 1:2, pp. 169-190.

 

Selected Files

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