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"Impossibilities: Review of Abel's Proof: An Essay on the Sources and Meaning of Mathematical Unsolvability, by Peter Pesic. Reviewed by Fernando Gouvêa. American Scientist, September-October 2003, pages 469-470.
Pesic gives an account of Abel's proof of the unsolvability of the quintic equation as well as the history of algebraic equations and attempts to solve them. Gouvêa feels that Pesic does a good job of introducing readers to an area of mathematics that they are probably unfamilar with, and writes that, "He is quite successful in achieving his first goal [presenting the history of the problem], partly successful in giving us access to Abel's proof and mostly unsuccessful in shedding light on 'the sources of mathematical unsolvability'."
--- Mike Breen
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