Specifically designed as an integrated survey of the development of analytic geometry, this classic study takes a unique approach to the history of ideas. The author, a distinguished historian of mathematics, presents a detailed view of not only the concepts themselves, but also the ways in which they extended the work of each generation, from before the Alexandrian Age through the eras of the great French mathematicians Fermat and Descartes, and on through Newton and Euler to the "Golden Age," from 1789 to 1850. Appropriate as an undergraduate text, this history is accessible to any mathematically inclined reader. 1956 edition. Analytical bibliography. Index.