Mathematicians at war: Volterra and his French colleagues in World War I

Description

Numerous scientists have taken part in the war effort during World War I, but few gave it the passionate energy of the prominent Italian mathematician Volterra. As a convinced supporter of the cause of Britain and France, he struggled vigorously to carry Italy into the war in May 1915 and then developed a frenetic activity to support the war effort, going himself to the front, even though he was 55. This activity found an adequate echo with his French colleagues Borel, Hadamard and Picard. The huge correspondence they exchanged during the war, gives an extraordinary view of these activities, and raises numerous fundamental questions about the role of a scientist, and particularly a mathematician during WW I. It also offers a vivid documentation about the intellectual life of the time ; Volterra’s and Borel’s circles in particular were extremely wide and the range of their interests was not limited to their field of specialization. The book proposes the complete transcription of the aforementioned correspondence, annotated with numerous footnotes to give details on the contents. It also offers a general historical introduction to the context of the letters and several complements on themes related to the academic exchanges between France and Italy during the war. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Front Matter....Pages 1-1 What Is this Book About?....Pages 3-7 The Protagonists....Pages 9-12 Italy and France at the Eve of WW1....Pages 13-16 Vito Volterra and his institutional activity....Pages 17-19 Volterra and Italian Interventionism Between 1914 and 1915....Pages 21-32 Front Matter....Pages 33-33 Volterra’s Exchanges with Borel, Hadamard and Picard in World War One....Pages 35-152 Front Matter....Pages 153-153 The Case of Pérès....Pages 155-164 Persuading the American Jewish Community....Pages 165-169 French Propaganda....Pages 171-179 Cultural Relations Between Italy and France....Pages 181-188 Back Matter....Pages 189-194