Pushing Limits: From West Point to Berkeley and Beyond challenges the myth that mathematicians lead dull and ascetic lives. It recounts the unique odyssey of a noted mathematician who overcame military hurdles at West Point, Army Ranger School and the Vietnam War, and survived many civilian escapades—hitchhiking in third-world hotspots, fending off sharks in Bahamian reefs, and camping deep behind the forbidding Iron Curtain. From ultra-conservative West Point in the ’60s to ultra-radical Berkeley in the ’70s, and ultimately to genteel Georgia Tech in the ’80s, this is the tale of an academic career as noteworthy for its offbeat adventures as for its teaching and research accomplishments. It brings to life the struggles and risks underlying mathematical research, the unparalleled thrill of making scientific breakthroughs, and the joy of sharing those discoveries around the world. Hill's book is packed with energy, humor, and suspense, both physical and intellectual. Anyone who is curious about how one maverick mathematician thinks, who wants to relive the zanier side of the ’60s and ’70s, who wants an armchair journey into the third world, or who seeks an unconventional view of several of society's iconic institutions, will be drawn to this book.

… captivating memoir reveals an intriguing character who is part Renaissance Man, part Huckleberry Finn. Fast-paced and often hilarious … provides some penetrating and impious insights into some of our more revered institutions.

—Rick Atkinson, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, author of The Long Gray Line

Ted Hill is unique in having both a very exciting internal mathematical life … and an action-filled, adventurous, external life. … his natural gift, very rare for mathematicians, of story-telling, [makes this] a page-turner.

—Doron Zeilberger, Rutgers University, winner of MAA Ford Prize, AMS Steele Prize, and ICA Euler Medal

Thoughtful, funny, evocative, Ted Hill takes us through a life well-lived … an intensely personal story that will appeal to every profession—and to every generation!

—General Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Commander

Ted Hill is an original. Mathematician. Adventurer. Activist. His life has seen both his mind and body tested to extremes … insightful, entertaining and—in a very good way—unlike any other book you will ever read by a mathematician.

—Alex Bellos, author of Here's Looking at Euclid and The Grapes of Math

Readership

General readers interested in mathematics careers and education, adventure travel, military life, the 1960s-70s, and how all this combines together; mathematics educators, students, and graduates, especially those of West Point, Stanford, and Berkeley.