>>11424857Mathematics after WW2 split into two polar opposite factions: first, the applied faction. Science and engineering became matters of national security with the manhattan project, NASA, etc., and there was a push towards mathematical utility and churning out as many scientists and engineers as possible from a wider and less talented pool of students. The second camp came from within pure mathematics and was a kind of reactionary movement countering the trend toward mathematical utility and applications. They swung in the polar opposite extreme of excessive abstraction, formalism and jargon. Once beautiful and interesting fields were rendered, cold, lifeless and inpenetrable. Today, reading a book written before the war is like entering a lost world of beauty and wonder which you never knew existed.
