In this book, Hawkins elegantly places Lebesgue's early work on integration theory within in proper historical context by relating it to the developments during the nineteenth century that motivated it and gave it significance and also to the contributions made in this field by Lebesgue's contemporaries.

Hawkins was awarded the 1997 MAA Chauvenet Prize and the 2001 AMS Albert Leon Whiteman Memorial Prize for notable exposition and exceptional scholarship in the history of mathematics.