The book by Mashaal and a book by Aczel (which I enjoyed) were reviewed by Michael Atiyah (1966 Fields Medalist): "Bourbaki, A Secret Society of Mathematicians" (Maurice Mashaal) and "The Artist and the Mathematician" (Amir Aczel) - Notices of the American Mathematical Society, v. 54, no. 9, October, 2007 - https://www.ams.org/notices/200709/tx070901150p.pdf
There have been numerous articles about Bourbaki, including some by former Bourbaki members:
It's interesting that while Bourbaki had a large influence on modern mathematics, very few people read their books (at least among the people I know). In a sense, their project of producing a definitive exposition for a large part of mathematics has failed. I wonder whether it's because different branches of mathematics have their unique personalities, and therefore the attempt to provide a unified point of view are bound to fail.
wrp [3 hidden]5 mins ago
I read once that the general attitude of the group was that their publications were not meant to be widely read, but just to provide the foundation for better expository work.
I also heard that part of the bad reputation that Bourbaki got was due to their being used in graduate education, despite warnings that they weren't suitable. In the 1950s/60s, there was a lack of good graduate texts. Of course, then Serge Lang came along...
madcaptenor [3 hidden]5 mins ago
Also mathematicians tend to not read "the classics" of the field. Do the people you know read other math books from the same time period?
kzz102 [3 hidden]5 mins ago
I was applying a unfair standard to them of course. Every field has a few classics that last a long time, but most old books are not read. But I think Bourbaki maybe had grand ambitions that were eventually unrealized. My theory is that the presentation of mathematics is not based on unifying principles, but rather on the collective taste of mathematicians. So what end up being the most popular books is based on how the collective taste evolve.
throwaway81523 [3 hidden]5 mins ago
Yes, Whitaker & Watson (analysis), Hardy and Wright (number theory), Dieudonne (analysis and he was literally a Bourbaki member), heck, Euclid's Elements; Gauss Disquisitiones, etc. Bourbaki is more of a monument. Writing it was necessary, but for readers it suffices to know that it is there ;).
Davidzheng [3 hidden]5 mins ago
while it's certainly not read by most mathematicians, Bourbaki (especially set theory & general topology) are still quite often read by mathematicians in training I believe.
throwaway81523 [3 hidden]5 mins ago
The set theory book is, at best, very outdated. No idea about topology.
euiq [3 hidden]5 mins ago
General Topology is valuable, especially for the filter perspective; so are some of the Algebra volumes.
ysofunny [3 hidden]5 mins ago
they provided a unified point of view by explaining it all in terms of sets
ultimately they failed because they wrote such that it didn't matter if other people understood. it's a style that is only intelligible if you already know (from some other experience) what they are describing.
HN.zip
There have been numerous articles about Bourbaki, including some by former Bourbaki members:
"The Work of Bourbaki During the Last Thirty Years" - Jean Dieudonne - Notices of the American Mathematical Society, v. 29, no. 7, November, 1982 - https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/198211/198211FullIssue....
"Twenty-Five Years with Nicolas Bourbaki, 1949–1973" - Armand Borel - Notices of the American Mathematical Society, v. 45, no. 3, March, 1998 - https://www.ams.org//journals/notices/199803/borel.pdf
Edit: fixed typo
I also heard that part of the bad reputation that Bourbaki got was due to their being used in graduate education, despite warnings that they weren't suitable. In the 1950s/60s, there was a lack of good graduate texts. Of course, then Serge Lang came along...
ultimately they failed because they wrote such that it didn't matter if other people understood. it's a style that is only intelligible if you already know (from some other experience) what they are describing.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
https://books.google.ae/books?id=-CXn6y_1nJ8C&pg=PA18&redir_...
this one?
yes, this is the original link I submitted. not sure why it was modified.