Although the chapter topics follow the current model of history of mathematics text books (compare the table of contents Victor J. Katz's history of mathematics; notably similar), the text has a strength, depth, and honesty found all too seldom in a text book mathematical history. This is not the typical text-book on technical history that can be dismissed (as Victor J. Katz's should be) as "a pack of lies" with only "slight exageration" (to quote William Berkson's Fields of Force).

Also, the text is bold enough to quote and translate the actual and typical style of presentation used in Bourbaki meetings: "tu es demembere foutu Bourbaki" ("you are dismmembered [..]) [a telegram sent by Bourbaki group to Cartan, informing him that his book was accepted and would be published]. Luke Hodgkin's text dispenses with the asterisk (see p.241).