Abstract
NOT only the contents, but even the title of this book may puzzle many good mathematicians of the older school. Algebra seemed to be a stereotyped subject which started with substitution, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, had a great deal about equations, progressions, the binomial, exponential and logarithmic theorems, and then, after some chapters on miscellaneous topics, concluded with determinants and the theory of equations. There were a few pages headed the “Fundamental Laws of Algebra”, which were generally felt to be an unnecessary statement of the obvious. At one time invariants came into fashion, and were spoken of as the “Modern Higher Algebra”.
Structure of Algebras
By Prof. A. Adrian Albert. (American Mathematical Society, Colloquium Publications, Vol. 24.) Pp. xi + 210. (New York: American Mathematical Society, 1939.) 4 dollars.
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Mathematics and Astronomy. Nature 145, 498 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/145498b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/145498b0