This is an inspiring work. Its title is indicative of the type of vision Professor Stewart has, quixotically insightful while remaining adherent to its primary didactic mission. Throughout the book, he colours the subjects he is discussing with anecdotes and contextualising modern applications. He supplies us with a refreshingly detailed discourse on the early development of mathematics - from our earliest understandings of Babylonian base-60 numbering systems, leaving residues in our time and radial divisions, through Greek geometrical rigour and tentative experiments in infinite series, Roman numeral constriction and Arabic decimal liberation, we follow the course of number theory and geometry, their discovery, loss and rediscovery, gradually piecing together what Professor Stewart invites us to realise is surely one of the most remarkable stories behind cumulative human civilisation.

I can vouch that the hardback edition at least is a beautifully designed and illustrated volume, and can be read as a history, in sequence, or used as a ready reference, with self-contained chapters dealing with specific subjects.