本书以专题方式讲述数学的历史和数学的哲学（非史论型著作），每个专题相对独立。全书以数学历史为线索以数学为内容主体，以数学哲学为引申，易读、易懂，是本科生学习数学过程中非常好的课外读物。

本书由在国际上享有盛誉的普林斯顿大学教授Stein等撰写而成, 是一部为数学及相关专业大学二年级和三年级学生编写的教材，理论与实践并重。为了便于非数学专业的学生学习，全书内容简明、易懂，读者只需掌握微积分和线性代数知识。关于本书的详细介绍，请见“前言”。 本书已被哈佛大学和加利福尼亚理工学院选为教材。与本书相配套的教材《傅立叶分析导论》和《实分析》也已影印出版。

本书以全英文形式介绍了稀化气体中的玻色。

This is the third version of a book on differential manifolds. The first version appeared in 1962, and was written at the very beginning of a period of great expansion of the subject. At the time, I found no satisfactory book for the foundations of the subject, for multiple reasons. I expanded the book in 1971, and I expand it still further today. Specifically, I have added three chapters on Riemannian and pseudo Riemannian geometry, that is, covariant derivatives, curvature, and some applications up to the Hopf-Rinow and Hadamard-Cartan theorems, as well as some calculus of variations and applications to volume forms. I have rewritten the sections on sprays, and I have given more examples of the use of Stokes' theorem. I have also given many more references to the literature, all of this to broaden the perspective of the book, which I hope can be used among things for a general course leading into many directions. The present book still meets the old needs, but fulfills new ones.