Many thanks for the extremely helpful messages you posted in response to my
earlier question about the history of the concept of function. I am very
grateful. Perhaps you can also help me with another query.
I am looking for material that will help render more intelligible Abel's
famous proof (1824) of the general insolubility in radicals of quintic
equations. I am a physicist, rather than a mathematician, and have been
working with some colleagues here to study his 1824 paper and see if his
arguments can be made more transparent without having recourse to the later
abstract vocabulary of Galois theory (I do know the fine works of Hadlock
and the Maxfields in this vein). Can any of you direct me to writings that
clarify either the history immediately preceding his work? Even more, how
one should assess its significance in relation to the issue of
transcendental and algebraic numbers and as a mathematical watershed
comparable to the ancient discovery of irrationality?
I appreciate your generous help.
Sincerely,
Peter Pesic
St. John's College
Santa Fe, NM USA