Who would have won the Fields Medals a hundred years ago? (Q1057251)

This paper is a highly entertaining and informative essay which uses the question in the title to explore the state of mathematics in the late nineteenth century. The author gives cameo portraits of the great mathematicians of the time, showing the stage at which each had arrived in his career. The article as a whole gives the reader a very good sense of what mathematics was like a century ago. Although the title question is, of course, not given an unambiguous answer, the list of ''finalists'' chosen by the author is quite convincing.