Beginning with the Babylonian and Egyptian mathematicians of antiquity, The Norton History of the Mathematical Sciences charts the growth of mathematics, through its refinement by ancient Greeks and medieval Arabs, to its systematic development by Europeans from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century. The traditions of the Far East are also examined.

The book describes the evolution of all the major aspects of the discipline: arithmetic and geometry; trigonometry and algebra; the interplay between mathematics, physics, and mathematical astronomy; and "new" branches such as probability, statistics, and mathematical economics.