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I am looking for books that discuss the origins of the zero, specifically the differences in the use and concept of the zero number among different civilizations (considering also the Mesoamerican cultures).

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    $\begingroup$ Not sure why this got a down-vote. Seems like a reasonable specific reference-request to me. $\endgroup$
    – user9072
    Commented Aug 8, 2013 at 18:43
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    $\begingroup$ Here is one: "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea". Indeed, for your inquiry, it was just much easier to search the web than looking for an answer here. $\endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    Commented Aug 8, 2013 at 18:50
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    $\begingroup$ @quid I didn't down-vote. But I can imagine why. Just a 5 minutes search on the web will come up with an answer. $\endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    Commented Aug 8, 2013 at 18:53
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    $\begingroup$ Here is a review to the book I introduced. It is written by Jeremy Gray: www.ams.org/notices/200009/rev-gray.pdf $\endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    Commented Aug 8, 2013 at 18:58
  • $\begingroup$ You may be interested in contributing to a proposed Spanish language version of math stackexchange; it could use some input from fluent professors and students: area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/64529/… $\endgroup$
    – Brian Rushton
    Commented Feb 2, 2014 at 20:53

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Since no other answer came up, I repeat my comment as an answer. The book written by Charles Seife: Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea which won the 2000 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction. And you may find a review to the book (written by Jeremy Gray in Notices) here .

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There is also the little book by Robert Kaplan, The Nothing that is: a Natural History of Zero (Oxford University Press, 2000).

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  • $\begingroup$ This is a much better book than that by Seife. Another book to consider is Tobias Dantzig: Numbers: The language of science. $\endgroup$
    – Ronnie Brown
    Commented Aug 10, 2013 at 10:13
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Alain Schärlig, Du zéro à la virgule; Les chiffres arabes à la conquête de l'Europe, 1143–1585, Presses Polytechniques et Universitaires Romandes, Lausanne, 2010. 296 pp. ISBN: 978-2-88074-890-6. MR2741951

Rabindrnath Mukherjee, Discovery of zero and its impact on Indian mathematics, Das Gupta & Company Private Ltd., Calcutta, 1991. MR1314426

Georges Ifrah, From one to zero; A universal history of numbers, Penguin Books, New York, 1987. xvi+503 pp. ISBN: 0-14-009919-0. MR0915160

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