ABSTRACT

Saunders Mac Lane was an extraordinary mathematician, a dedicated teacher, and a good citizen who cared deeply about the values of science and education. In his autobiography, he gives us a glimpse of his "life and times," mixing the highly personal with professional observations. His recollections bring to life a century of extraordinary accomplis

part |2 pages

Part One: Early Years

chapter 1|10 pages

Heresy

chapter 2|8 pages

High School

chapter 3|10 pages

Undergraduate at Yale

chapter 4|4 pages

Universal Knowledge and New Knowledge

chapter 5|8 pages

The University of Chicago, 1930

chapter 6|20 pages

Germany 1931-33

part |2 pages

Part Two: First Teaching

chapter 7|10 pages

Yale and Harvard

chapter 8|6 pages

Cornell and Chicago

chapter 9|2 pages

Surveying Modern Algebra

chapter 10|4 pages

Algebraic Functions

chapter 11|4 pages

First Graduate Students

part |2 pages

Part Three: Collaborative Research

chapter 13|6 pages

Eilenberg Enters

chapter 14|6 pages

Naturality

part |2 pages

Part Four: The War Years

chapter 15|4 pages

Much More Applied Math

chapter 16|2 pages

Cynthia Enters

chapter 17|4 pages

War Research: Roll, Pitch, and Yaw

part |2 pages

Part Five: Eilenberg and Mac Lane

chapter 18|2 pages

Cautiously Publishing Category Theory

chapter 19|4 pages

The Cohomology of Groups

chapter 20|2 pages

Eilenberg-Mac Lane Spaces

part |2 pages

Part Six: Harvard Years

chapter 21|6 pages

Professor at Harvard

chapter 22|2 pages

University Presidents

chapter 23|4 pages

Jib and Mainsail

chapter 24|8 pages

Dorothy

chapter 25|10 pages

Have Guggenheim, Will Travel

part |2 pages

Part Seven: Chicago in the Fifties

chapter 26|4 pages

Return to Chicago

chapter 27|6 pages

The Stone Age at Chicago

chapter 28|6 pages

The Stone Age Comes to an End

chapter 29|6 pages

Hutchins and the University

chapter 30|2 pages

The College Mathematics Staff

chapter 31|4 pages

Univeral Algebra and Think Tanks

part |2 pages

Part Eight: Mathematical Developments

chapter 32|4 pages

Mathematical Organizations

chapter 33|4 pages

Bourbaki-the Legend

chapter 34|4 pages

The New Math

chapter 35|2 pages

Categories Expand

chapter 36|8 pages

The Grand Tour of Europe, 1954

chapter 37|6 pages

Paris and Cartan. 1955-56

part |2 pages

Part Nine: National Academy of Science

chapter 39|4 pages

The National Research Council

chapter 40|2 pages

The Academy Proceedings

part |2 pages

Part Ten: The Sixties and Beyond

chapter 41|2 pages

Homological Algebra

chapter 42|4 pages

Categories: La Jolla & Columbia

chapter 43|2 pages

Geometrical Mechanics

chapter 44|4 pages

Outdoors on the Indiana Dunes

chapter 45|4 pages

Categories at Work

part |2 pages

Part Eleven: National Science Policy

chapter 46|4 pages

As President of the AMS

chapter 47|6 pages

Academy Reports

chapter 48|2 pages

George Kistiakowski

chapter 49|12 pages

Report Review

chapter 50|8 pages

The National Science Board

chapter 51|4 pages

Science Policy

part |2 pages

Part Twelve: Travels

chapter 52|6 pages

Visits to China

chapter 53|4 pages

Anniversary at the Dunes, 1983

chapter 54|4 pages

Dorothy’s Delights

part |2 pages

Part Thirteen: Advising

chapter 55|8 pages

Chicago Graduate Students

chapter 56|2 pages

Friends and Mentors

chapter 57|2 pages

Rating Research

chapter 58|2 pages

The NAS Research Roundtable

part |2 pages

Part Fourteen: Later Developments

chapter 59|2 pages

The Philosophy of Mathematics

chapter 60|6 pages

Second Marriage

chapter 61|4 pages

International Category Conferences

part |2 pages

Part Fifteen: Contemplating

chapter 62|6 pages

Mathematics Departments

chapter 63|4 pages

Collaborative Research

chapter 64|4 pages

Career Choice: Inheritance of Precision?