Includes bibliographical references (p. 5-6).

Background for calculus / Steven Galovich -- Episodes from the early history of mathematics / Asger Aaboe -- Anticipations of calculus in medieval Indian mathematics / Ranjan Roy -- Slicing it thin / Howard Eves -- The heroic century / Lars Gàrding -- Fermat (1601-1665) / George F. Simmons -- On the seashore / Eric Temple Bell -- The creation of the calculus / Morris Kline -- Principia mathematica / Isaac Newton -- The world's first calculus textbook -- Calculus notation -- The "witch" of Agnesi / Lynn M. Osen -- Leonhard Euler / Jane Muir -- Transition to the twentieth century / Howard Eves -- Are variables necessary in calculus? / Karl Menger -- Misteaks / Barry Cipra -- Mathematical objectives / R.M. Winger -- Ecclesiastes -- The fabulous fourteen of calculus / Charles A. Jones -- Impossibility / Charles A. Jones and Nathan Root -- Infinity: limits and integration / David L. Hull -- Fallacies -- Mastering the mysteries of movement / David Bergamini and the editors of Life -- The education of T.C. Mits / Lillian R. and Hugh G. Lieber -- The sociology of mathematics / Lars Gàrding -- Calculus and opinions / David L. Hull -- Mathematics as a social filter / Philip J. Davis and Rueben Hersh -- Solving equations is not solving problems / Jerome Spanier -- Applied mathematics in engineering / Brockway McMillan -- Bartlett's familiar quotations -- Memorabilia mathematica / Robert Eduoard Moritz -- Anecdotes / Clifton Fadiman -- The relation of mathematics to physics / Richard Feynman -- Mathematics as a creative art/ P.R. Halmos -- Beauty in mathematics / H.E Huntley -- Nine more problems / Martin Gardner .

"Faculty members in most disciplines provide students in beginning courses with some history of their subject, some sense not only of what was done by whom, but also of how the discipline has contributed to intellectual history. These essays, appropriate for duplicating and handing out as collateral reading aim to provide such background, and also to develop an understanding of how mathematicians view their discipline." -- p.x .