Duel at Dawn

Duel at Dawn PDF Author: Amir Alexander
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674061748
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
In the fog of a Paris dawn in 1832, ƒvariste Galois, the 20-year-old founder of modern algebra, was shot and killed in a duel. That gunshot, suggests Amir Alexander, marked the end of one era in mathematics and the beginning of another. Arguing that not even the purest mathematics can be separated from its cultural background, Alexander shows how popular stories about mathematicians are really morality tales about their craft as it relates to the world. In the eighteenth century, Alexander says, mathematicians were idealized as child-like, eternally curious, and uniquely suited to reveal the hidden harmonies of the world. But in the nineteenth century, brilliant mathematicians like Galois became Romantic heroes like poets, artists, and musicians. The ideal mathematician was now an alienated loner, driven to despondency by an uncomprehending world. A field that had been focused on the natural world now sought to create its own reality. Higher mathematics became a world unto itselfÑpure and governed solely by the laws of reason. In this strikingly original book that takes us from Paris to St. Petersburg, Norway to Transylvania, Alexander introduces us to national heroes and outcasts, innocents, swindlers, and martyrsÐall uncommonly gifted creators of modern mathematics.

Duel at Dawn

Duel at Dawn PDF Author: Amir Alexander
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674061748
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
In the fog of a Paris dawn in 1832, ƒvariste Galois, the 20-year-old founder of modern algebra, was shot and killed in a duel. That gunshot, suggests Amir Alexander, marked the end of one era in mathematics and the beginning of another. Arguing that not even the purest mathematics can be separated from its cultural background, Alexander shows how popular stories about mathematicians are really morality tales about their craft as it relates to the world. In the eighteenth century, Alexander says, mathematicians were idealized as child-like, eternally curious, and uniquely suited to reveal the hidden harmonies of the world. But in the nineteenth century, brilliant mathematicians like Galois became Romantic heroes like poets, artists, and musicians. The ideal mathematician was now an alienated loner, driven to despondency by an uncomprehending world. A field that had been focused on the natural world now sought to create its own reality. Higher mathematics became a world unto itselfÑpure and governed solely by the laws of reason. In this strikingly original book that takes us from Paris to St. Petersburg, Norway to Transylvania, Alexander introduces us to national heroes and outcasts, innocents, swindlers, and martyrsÐall uncommonly gifted creators of modern mathematics.

Pistols at Dawn

Pistols at Dawn PDF Author: Richard Hopton
Publisher: Little Brown GBR
ISBN: 9780749929961
Category : Dueling
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
After the gross and unjustifiable insults you have offered me both as a soldier and a gentleman, I conclude you must be prepared to give me that satisfaction I am entitled to. I am therefore to request that you will name a place and hour of meeting.' So runs a typical challenge to a duel from the early 19th century; formal, polite - and potentially fatal. Duelling is deeply imbedded in our collective consciousness, through numerous films and novels; it evokes a golden past, of gentlemen defending their honour (or that of their wives) in the early morning light of a wooded glade; of frockcoats, rapiers and pistols. From the duel's roots in medieval chivalric tournaments, to the unforgiving code of honour in which death was preferable to shame, this fascinating history recounts - with the aid of numerous vivid eye-witness accounts - all the drama and sheer terror of the duel.

Gentlemen's Blood

Gentlemen's Blood PDF Author: Barbara Holland
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1596918098
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
"Never, never, did I imagine that dueling could be so enthralling, outrageous, gruesome, tragic, and, yes, ridiculous...Lively humor and sparkling prose." -Wall Street Journal The medieval justice of trial by combat evolved into the private duel by sword and pistol, with thousands of honorable men-and not-so-honorable women-giving lives and limbs to wipe out an insult or prove a point. The duel was essential to private, public, and political life, and those who followed the elaborate codes of procedure were seldom prosecuted and rarely convicted-for, in fact, they were obeying a grand old tradition. Based on her fascinating 1997 Smithsonian article, Barbara Holland's Gentlemen's Blood is the first trade book to trace the remarkable, often gruesome, sometimes comical history of the Western tradition of defending one's honor.

Touché

Touché PDF Author: John Leigh
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674504380
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
Many of the West’s best writers fought in duels or wrote about them, seduced by glamour or risk or recklessness. A gift as a plot device, the duel also offered a way to discover how we face fears of humiliation, pain, and death. John Leigh’s literary history of the duel illuminates these and other tensions attending the birth of the modern world.

The Duelling Handbook, 1829

The Duelling Handbook, 1829 PDF Author: Joseph Hamilton
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486147940
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
This 1829 manual offered advice on everything from withdrawal of challenges to weapons. Dramatic anecdotes recount duels arising from disagreements over religion, women, gambling, and other volatile subjects.

Duels and Duelling

Duels and Duelling PDF Author: Stephen Banks
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0747812683
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 57

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Book Description
A duel could result from any challenge to a gentleman's honour, from minor insult to major accusation. At a prearranged time, two men at odds would meet, armed either with swords or pistols, to engage in a formal and sometimes fatal exchange. Gentlemen considered it their prerogative to fight, despite the illegality of duelling, and figures as prominent as the Duke of Wellington and Georges Clemenceau defended their honour in this way. Why did participants flout the law, what codes were followed, what were the changing roles of the seconds, and what were the consequences for victims and victors? Stephen Banks answers these questions and examines the evolution from Norman trials-by-combat to the formalised duel, analysing the custom's decline in England by Victorian times and its final disppearance from Europe by the twentieth century.

Swords at Dawn

Swords at Dawn PDF Author: Misha Handman
Publisher: White Wolf Publishing
ISBN: 9781588463708
Category : Changeling (Game)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


The Code of Honor (pocket)

The Code of Honor (pocket) PDF Author: John Lyde Wilson
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0557454085
Category : Dueling
Languages : en
Pages : 59

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Book Description


Big Gun Battles

Big Gun Battles PDF Author: Robert C. Stern
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
ISBN: 1473849357
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 535

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Book Description
This naval history of WWII explores the advancing technology and tactics of battleships through a fascinating survey of ship-to-ship duels. While many naval battles of the Second World War were decided by the torpedo or the aerial bomb, there was a surprising number of traditional ship-to-ship engagements involving the big guns of battleships and cruisers. Big Gun Battles recounts some of the most significant and technically fascinating of these gunfire duels in a narrative that combines lively storytelling with an in-depth understanding of the factors influencing victory or defeat. Covering all theatres of the naval war from 1939 until the Japanese surrender, the selected incidents demonstrate the changing face of surface warfare under the influence of rapidly improving fire-control systems, radar, and other technologies. By 1945, battleships achieved the pinnacle of gunnery excellence.

Dueling

Dueling PDF Author: Alix Wood
Publisher: Gareth Stevens Publishing LLLP
ISBN: 1433995794
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
It wasn’t that long ago that dueling was an accepted practice in many parts of the world. In fact, duels were once considered an honorable way to solve a problem. The American navy actually included the Code Duello, the rules for conducting a duel, in its handbook until 1862. Readers are introduced to the special language of dueling and the famous people who participated in duels—or narrowly avoided them—including Andrew Jackson, Edgar Allen Poe, and Alexander Hamilton. Surprising facts are highlighted in sidebars throughout the text, such as the common practice of purposefully shooting away from one’s opponent. Dynamic images and illustrations transport readers back to the days of pistols drawn at dawn.