Making Mathematics American: Gender, Professionalization, and Abstraction During the Growth of Mathematics in the United States, 1890-1945
MAKING MATHEMATICS AMERICAN: GENDER, PROFESSIONALIZATION, AND ABSTRACTION DURING THE GROWTH OF MATHEMATICS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1890-1945 A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Ellen MacPhee Abrams August 2020 © 2020 Ellen MacPhee Abrams MAKING MATHEMATICS AMERICAN: GENDER, PROFESSIONALIZATION, AND ABSTRACTION DURING THE GROWTH OF MATHEMATICS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1890-1945 Ellen MacPhee Abrams, Ph. D. Cornell University 2020 This dissertation tells the story of how mathematics was made American. Like other American sciences, mathematics in the United States shifted during the Progressive Era from practical and educational activities toward research. Unlike other American sciences, however, American mathematics grew conspicuously apart from physical reality. Taking their cue from prominent scholars in places like France and Germany, mathematicians in the United States began building and working to define abstract mathematical systems. By following their European counterparts into abstract, so-called “modern” fields of research, however, American mathematicians risked alienation in a nation known for its “Yankee ingenuity” and practical know-how. This dissertation argues that, while the growth of mathematics in the United States meant establishing societies, journals, and graduate programs, it also meant reconfiguring what counted as mathematical work, who counted as a mathematician, and how each was thought to contribute to American society. While early-twentieth-century Americans were working to build a mathematics community, prominent researchers in Europe were working to rebuild the foundations of mathematics itself. Foundational questions, in turn, led some to reconsider the epistemological status and meaning of mathematical knowledge, as well as its value and values.
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