History of Mathematics Textbooks and the Construction of Mathematical Subjectivity

In this paper, I consider how our ideas about mathematics shape our individual and cultural relationship to the field. Specifically, I argue that histories of mathematics can play a role in the construction of a mathematical subjectivity that is both gendered and racialized. I examine a best-selling history of math textbook which uses a biographical approach to tell the story of the mathematician-hero. I show how this approach to the history of mathematics results in the construction of a mathematical subjectivity that limits who can see themselves within it. My paper ends with a consideration of a textbook that constructs a much more expansive mathematical subjectivity by teaching readers how to engage in the process of creating their own accounts of the historical development of mathematics.