Karen Hunger Parshall is the Commonwealth Professor of History and Mathematics at the University of Virginia. She is the author of James Joseph Sylvester: Jewish Mathematician in a Victorian World and the coauthor of Taming the Unknown: A History of Algebra from Antiquity to the Early Twentieth Century (Princeton).
"""Clearly the definitive treatment of the ascendancy of the American research mathematics community to international prominence during the first half of the twentieth century. As such, it will serve as the point of departure for anyone wanting to delve further into the mathematics being produced in the United States in this time period.""---Calvin Jongsma, MAA Reviews ""Karen Parshall masterfully examines the self-laudatory claim for ‘a new era’ that elite American mathematicians advanced as they secured leadership positions on the international stage. . . . The writing is elegant and at times gripping.""---Jemma Lorenat, Isis"