[1] As such, as well as covering the mathematics of its topics, it includes biographical material and correspondence with many of the people involved in creating it, including in-depth coverage of Issai Schur, Pierre Joseph Henry Baudet [de], and Bartel Leendert van der Waerden,[2] in particular studying the question of van der Warden's complicity with the Nazis in his war-time service as a professor in Nazi Germany.
[3][4] It also includes biographical material on Paul Erdős, Frank P. Ramsey, Emmy Noether, Alfred Brauer, Richard Courant, Kenneth Falconer, Nicolas de Bruijn, Hillel Furstenberg, and Tibor Gallai, among others,[1] as well as many historical photos of these subjects.
[3] William Gasarch is surprised by the book's omission of some closely related topics, including the proof of the Heawood conjecture on coloring graphs on surfaces by Gerhard Ringel and Ted Youngs.
[3] Ziegler points to several errors of fact in the book's history, takes issue with its insistence that each contribution should be attributed to only one researcher, and doubts Soifer's objectivity with respect to van der Waerden.
"[4] Ziegler agrees, writing "Someone should have also forced him to cut the manuscript, at the long parts and chapters where the investigations into the colorful lives of the creators get out of hand.