| FrontmatterDownload pp. i–iv |
| ContentsDownload p. v |
| IntroductionDownload pp. vii–xi |
| Characters in order of appearanceDownload p. xii |
| Part I From Cardano to Newton: 1545 to 1707p. 1 |
| 1 | From Cardano to Viètepp. 3–28 |
| 2 | From Viète to Descartespp. 29–49 |
| 3 | From Descartes to Newtonpp. 50–77 |
| Part II From Newton to Lagrange: 1707 to 1771p. 79 |
| 4 | Discerning the nature of the rootspp. 81–103 |
| 5 | Roots as sums of radicalspp. 104–120 |
| 6 | Functions of the rootspp. 121–130 |
| 7 | Elimination theorypp. 131–145 |
| 8 | The degree of a resolventpp. 146–152 |
| 9 | Numerical solutionpp. 153–162 |
| 10 | The insights of Lagrange, 1771pp. 163–183 |
| 11 | The outsiders: Waring and Vandermondepp. 184–196 |
| Part III After Lagrangep. 197 |
| 12 | Dissemination and new directionspp. 199–208 |
| Bibliographypp. 209–220 |
| Indexpp. 221–224 |
