Nathaniel Bowditch’s career does not conform well to the modern ideal of the mathematician. He was, rather, a skilled and exacting calculator, and this ability sufficed to establish his mathematical reputation in the early United States. The connoisseur of lengthy subtitles, wanting to know in what manner this man “changed American life,” will discover that it has much to do with his devotion to numbers. His historic role had little to do with mathematical prowess, deriving instead from his commitment to strict, even pitiless, record keeping and, with it, to orderly budgets and regularized business practices.
This book comes in the guise of a biography. Indeed, it provides an excellent survey of Bowditch’s life, including his family background, childhood, marriage, and children, as well as the opportunities and choices that defined his career. Thornton takes a great interest in his reputation, which was indeed bound up with mathematics and science....