Description
Book SynopsisAn era of sweeping cultural change in America, the postwar years saw the rise of beatniks and hippies, the birth of feminism, and the release of the first video game. This book examines the rise and fall of the new math as a marker of the period's political and social ferment.
Trade Review"Phillips's exposition of what the new math meant and how, in practice, it was taught are definite strengths of his book. He reveals unexpected dimensions of the controversy it generated. Its champions in the classroom put more stress on forming free, rational citizens than on raising the level of technical competence in America, while the opposition came not only from defenders of rote learning, but equally from mathematicians who focused on the instrumental value of mathematics for science and technology." (Theodore M. Porter, University of California, Los Angeles)"
