The Remarkable Life and Enduring Legacy of George Boole
From shoemaker’s son to mathematical revolutionary – discover the untold stories behind the man who invented the logic that powers our digital world

What if we told you that the godfather of artificial intelligence is descended from a 19th-century mathematician who revolutionized human thought? Or that Sherlock Holmes’ most notorious villain might have been based on a real professor from Cork? Desmond MacHale and Yvonne Cohen’s The Essential George Boole (Mercier Press, 2024) reveals these connections and much more in a biography that, as reviewer Tony Crilly notes in Mathematical Gazette, shows how “George Boole surely merits this further attention given the influence he has had.”

The Shoemaker’s Son Who Changed Everything
George Boole’s rise from poverty to mathematical immortality reads like fiction, but the details are even more extraordinary than you might expect. Born to a shoemaker, Boole faced the rigid class barriers of Victorian Britain, yet Crilly reveals how “it was indeed possible, as Boole showed, that the son of a shoemaker could make a scientific reputation.”

The secret? Mathematics offered what Crilly describes as “a notable advantage as an object of study for the autodidact lower down the social scale” because “It had no need of expensive scientific equipment or a laboratory and was a subject where underlying talent and dedication could overcome class and financial barriers.”

But here’s the twist that makes Boole’s story even more compelling: he wasn’t alone. Local squire, Sir Edward ffrench Bromhead, who was born in Dublin, became his unlikely mentor, and remarkably, Bromhead had done exactly the same thing for another impoverished mathematical genius, George Green from Nottingham, twenty years earlier. As Crilly explains, Bromhead “allowed his protégé to use his library at Thurlby Hall, just as he had done for the equally impoverished George Green.”

The Fight for Recognition
Even genius needs champions, and Boole’s story reveals the behind-the-scenes battle for his recognition. When he submitted his groundbreaking work for the Royal Society’s Gold Medal, Crilly tells us that “recognition did not come easily.” Two crucial figures fought for him: Thomas S. Davies, who “argued that being poor was not a valid reason for work to be rejected,” and Philip Kelland from Edinburgh, “whose judgement was probably decisive in the award of the medal.”

Beyond Boolean Logic: The Genius You Don’t Know
While everyone knows about Boolean algebra, Crilly reveals that “this was but one subject where he distinguished himself.” Before turning thirty, Boole made discoveries in Invariant Theory that he didn’t pursue, but which became the life’s work of mathematical giants Arthur Cayley and J.J. Sylvester. Crilly notes how “Works by Boole on the calculus of probability and a book on differential equations reveal the depth of his thinking and the clarity of his mathematical writing.”

The Boole Dynasty: From Victorian Cork to Silicon Valley
Perhaps the most astonishing revelation in MacHale and Cohen’s book concerns Boole’s descendants. Crilly describes the “extensive family derived from his five daughters,” but the connections are mind-blowing. His daughter Mary Ellen was a published poet, married a famous mathematician and became matriarch of the Boole–Hinton dynasty. Other daughters – Alicia became a geometer, Lucy a professor of chemistry, and Ethel the author of best-selling novel The Gadfly.

But here’s the kicker: among his descendants is “Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor FRS, a notable fluid dynamacist,” and in our own time, “Geoffrey Everest Hinton (b. 1947) FRS,” whom Crilly describes as “a prominent expert in AI (artificial intelligence), and possibly even its ‘godfather'” and “A Nobel Laureate in physics.” The connection isn’t just genetic – Crilly notes that Hinton “has similar concerns to his great-great-grandfather in general terms of thought and machines.”

The Moriarty Mystery Solved?
In perhaps their most intriguing investigation, MacHale and Cohen turn detective to explore whether Arthur Conan Doyle based Professor Moriarty on George Boole. Crilly reports that ‘they turn themselves into literary sleuths’ and ‘had much fun in writing this jaunty chapter.’ They build what Crilly calls ‘a convincing case’ that brings H.G. Wells into the mix, though they credit the original theory to ‘John Bowers, a Leeds mathematical lecturer, in the New Scientist (1989).’

What You’ll Discover Inside
The book includes four revealing appendices that Crilly details: a comprehensive introduction to Boolean Algebra, an exploration of ‘The linguistic prescience of George Boole,’ the complete story of ‘Boole’s descendants,’ and a guide to ‘Boole Monuments and memorials.’

From the University of Cork, where Boole served as first professor of mathematics from 1849 until his death in 1864, his revolutionary thinking about logic transformed not just mathematics, but laid the foundation for our digital age. As Crilly concludes, this book ‘would serve as an authoritative introduction to George Boole’ and reveals connections between past and present that will change how you see both Victorian mathematics and modern technology.

Ready to discover how a shoemaker’s son from 19th-century England became the hidden architect of our digital world?

Review by Tony Crilly, Mathematical Gazette. The Essential George Boole by Desmond MacHale & Yvonne Cohen, Mercier Press (2024), 238 pages, £15.99 (paper), ISBN 9781781178409.