The Krantz review is valuable because it is an approachable document that can be read and enjoyed by a nonmathematical reader. It's actually quite amusing I think, and not just because it has some cheap shots in it (although I agree, it does). I forwarded it to a classical scholar of Greek, an English professor, and a venture capitalist and they all thanked me for sending it. Two of them asked me if I "agreed with it" and I said I had only flipped through the book, so really had no idea. I suggested they take a look at it themselves. Generally speaking there is a tremendous shortage of popularly-approachable reviews and accounts of the mathematical literature, and there is a public out there that will read and enjoy it if it is done well. There are plenty of sterile technical analyses, addressed only to the specialist, of ANKOS available already. It's good that the Bulletin published the Krantz review in my opinion. * * * * At the ICM 2002-Opening Ceremony in Beijing, SS Chern contributed this introduction (in part) It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this gathering....In 2000, we had a mathematics year, an effort to attract more people to math. We now have a vast field and a large number of professional mathematicians whose major work is mathematics. Mathematics used to be individual work. But now we have a public. In such a situation a prime duty seems to be to make our progress available to the people. There is clearly considerable room for popular expositions. I also wonder if it is possible for research articles to be produced by a historical and popular introduction. The net phenomenon could be described as a globalization. It is more than geographical. In recent studies different fields were not only found to have contacts, but were merging. We might even foresee a unification of mathematics, including both pure and applied, and even the possibility of the emergence of a new Gauss. Chern's Whole text at http://www.mathunion.org/ICM/opening_speech.html Thane Plambeck 650 321 4884 office 650 323 4928 fax http://www.qxmail.com/home.htm