How Useful Is the Term ‘Modernism’ for Understanding the History of Early Twentieth-Century Mathematics?

The present article is intended as a critical assessment of some basic assumptions underlying the analysis of modernism in mathematics in its relationship with the broader aspects of cultural modernism, especially in the period 1890–1930. It discusses the potential historiographical gains of approaching the history of mathematics in the periods under such a perspective and suggests that a fruitful analysis of the phenomenon of modernism in mathematics must focus not on the common features of mathematics and other contemporary cultural trends, but rather on the common historical processes that led to the dominant approaches in all fields.