On a missed opportunity for collaboration between historians and mathematicians: a biographical avalanche triggered by Professor Ioan James, FRS. (Q619766)

This is an extremely critical attack on some recent work on the history of mathematics. Almost all of the criticism in this paper is aimed at some of the recent writings of Professor Ioan James. Without denying the importance of his research in topology, the author comes down very hard on many of the publications in the history of mathematics (excluding topology) written by James after his retirement from mathematical research. Much of that writing is devoted to biographies of eminent mathematicians and physicists and, according to the author, is not based on original research. The faults, some of them specified in detail in the paper, include ``many lacunae, misreading of the existing literature and [serious] mistakes''. The author also finds fault with publishers for not properly vetting manuscripts that they allow to be published.