Negative numbers to the binomial theorem in twenty-one steady chapters: Elements of Algebra is the school course that taught a generation of American students their algebra. Arthur Schultze, born in 1861, was head of the mathematical department at the High School of Commerce in New York City and had earlier been assistant professor of mathematics at New York University. He wrote at length on how the subject ought to be handled in the classroom, most fully in The Teaching of Mathematics in Secondary Schools, and his stated aim here was to shorten the usual course in algebra while still giving the student complete familiarity with all the essentials of the subject. Published by the Macmillan Company in 1910, it moves in order from addition and subtraction through factoring, fractions, ratio and proportion, simultaneous equations and the graphic representation of functions to quadratics, exponents, radicals, progressions and the binomial theorem. Graded exercises follow every rule, which is what still makes it workable for a reader teaching themselves as well as for a class. This edition features:The full twenty-one chapter course as Macmillan issued it, running from negative numbers through to the binomial theorem Graded exercises and worked examples set beside each new rule, so that every method can be practised as soon as it is met A chapter on the graphic representation of functions and equations, with the plotted figures that belong to it Patient handling of factoring, fractions, highest common factor and lowest common multiple, the usual sticking points A clear record of how algebra was actually taught in American secondary schools at the turn of the last century