TY - BOOK AU - Hollings, Christopher TI - Mathematics across the Iron Curtain : A history of the algebraic theory of semigroups T2 - History of Mathematics SN - 9781470437329 (PB) PY - 2017/// CY - Providence, Rhode Island PB - American Mathematical Society (AMS) KW - History and biography History of mathematics and mathematicians 20th century N1 - Algebra at the beginning of the twentieth century Communication between east and west Anton Kazimirovich Sushkevich Unique factorisation in semigroups Embedding semigroups in groups The Rees theorem The French school of 'demi-groupes' The expansion of the theory in the 1940s and 1950s The post-Sushkevich Soviet school The development of inverse semigroups Matrix representations of semigroups Books, seminars, conferences, and journals Appendix: Basic theory N2 - The theory of semigroups is a relatively young branch of mathematics, with most of the major results having appeared after the Second World War. This book describes the evolution of (algebraic) semigroup theory from its earliest origins to the establishment of a full-fledged theory. Semigroup theory might be termed 'Cold War mathematics' because of the time during which it developed. There were thriving schools on both sides of the Iron Curtain, although the two sides were not always able to communicate with each other, or even gain access to the other's publications. A major theme of this book is the comparison of the approaches to the subject of mathematicians in the East and West, and the study of the extent to which contact between the two sides was possible ER -