Geometry

From the contents:
Part I. A Cultural Heritage: Beginnings - The Great River Civilizations - Greek and Hellenic Geometry - Geometry in the Hellenistic Era - The Geometry of Yesterday and Today - Geometry and the Real World
- Part II. Introduction to Geometry: Axiomatic Geometry - Axiomatic Projective Geometry - Models for non-Euclidian Geometry - Making Things Precise - Projective Space - Geometry in the Affine and the Projective plane - Algebraic Curves of Higher Degrees in the Affine Plane - Higher Geometry in the Projective Plane - Sharpening the Sword of Algebra - Constructions with Straightedge and Compass - Fractal Geometry - Catastrophe Theory

From the reviews: MAA ONLINE "This is a wonderful book based on lectures on geometry given by the author to undergraduate students at the University of Bergen, Norway¿very interesting and fun to read and provides a very appealing and concise view of the development of geometry¿very beautiful and (I think) enlightening for all readers¿a beautiful treatment of geometry. It might very well serve as a textbook for geometry courses¿I strongly recommend this book to instructors who want to find a textbook for a comprehensive undergraduate geometry course, or for lectures considering a presentation on geometry for the general public. The book will be very useful also for high-school and undergraduate interested in studying geometry. A receptive and informed general public interested in mathematics will find in the first (and, maybe, second) part of the book a very readable and fun approach to geometry." Mihaela Poplicher, The MAA ONLINE book review column, for complete review see http://www.maa.org/reviews/holmegeom.html "This is a wonderful book based on lectures on geometry given by the author to undergraduate students at the University of Bergen, Norway. ... Summarizing: I think that this book is a beautiful treatment of geometry. ... I strongly recommend this book to instructors who want to find a textbook for a comprehensive undergraduate geometry course, or for lecturers considering a presentation on geometry for the general public. The book will be very useful also for high-school and undergraduate interested in studying geometry. A receptive and informed general public interested in mathematics will find in the first (and, maybe, second) part of the book a very readable and fun approach to geometry."