An eloquent tour de force that reveals how the concept of number evolved from prehistorical times through the 20th century. Tobias Dantzig shows that the development of maths - from the invention of counting to the discovery of infinity - is a profoundly human story that progressed by |trying and erring, by groping and stumbling|. He shows how commerce, war and religion led to advances in maths and he recounts the stories of individuals whose breakthroughs expanded the concept of number and created the mathematics that we know today.