The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics is a book authored by George Gheverghese Joseph, and was first published by Princeton University Press in 1991. The book was brought out as a response to view of the history of mathematics epitomized by Morris Kline's statement that, comparing to what the Greeks achieved, "the mathematics of Egyptians and Babylonians is the scrawling of children just learning to write, as opposed to great literature",Joseph (1991), p. 177 misquotes Kline by replacing "Babylonians" by "Mesopotamians". The actual quote from Kline is "Compared with the accomplishments of their immediate successors, the Greeks, the mathematics of the Egyptians and Babylonians is the scrawling of children just learning to write as opposed to great literature." , Mathematics for Liberal Arts (1967), re-published as Mathematics for the Nonmathematician (1985), p. 14. criticised by Joseph as "Eurocentric". The third edition of the book was released in 2011.
The book is divided into 11 chapters. Chapter 1 provides a lengthy justification for the book. Chapter 2 is devoted to a discussion of the mathematics of Native Americans and Chapter 3 to the mathematics of ancient Egyptians. The next two chapters consider the mathematics of Mesopotamia, then there are two chapters on Chinese mathematics, three chapters on Indian mathematics, and the final chapter discusses Islamic mathematics.
Plagiarism C. K. Raju accused Joseph and Dennis Almeida of plagiarism of his decade long scholastic work C.K. Raju. (2007). Cultural Foundations of Mathematics. Pearson Longman. that began in 1998 for the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture funded by the Indian Academy of Sciences concerning Indian mathematics and its possible knowledge transfer. An ethics investigation of the research team of Joseph and Almeida led University of Exeter to issue Almeida a formal written warning . Later, the University of Manchester posted an erratum and acknowledgement of Raju's work.
Joseph denies the charges."Indian claims Brit study on calculus was plagiarised" Times of India/ Hindustan Times (Aug 20, 2007)
Reviews A review of the first edition of the book: A review of the book by European Mathematical Information Service: A review of the book by David Pingree: For a critical assessment of some of the claims and arguments of the author:
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