Surveys of Current (last 50 years) Mathematics at Graduate / Research level?

A fairly comprehensive survey is given in the Princeton Companion to Mathematics, edited by Timothy Gowers. The book contains a lot of material by many great mathematicians. In terms of the level, early undergraduates can benefit from the book, but probably everyone could learn something new. The only downside is that it is really, really heavy.


These are the ones I had come across before posing the question. Though none of them were quite what I was after (see accepted answer of Princeton Companion to Mathematics), they're recorded here in case they are useful to others:

  • Modern Mathematics in the Light of the Fields Medals, by Michael Monastyrsky

  • What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences, yearly 200x-200x+1 de Barry Cipra, so far 9 volumes.

  • This MathOverflow list is a great selection of books with an historical perspective on various areas of modern mathematic

  • A Panorama of Pure Mathematics (Pure and Applied Mathematics (Academic Pr) by Jean A. Dieudonne, although this has not received many favourable reviews.

  • Encyclopaedia of Mathematical Sciences, V.I. Arnold (editor-in-chief), although this is a series consisting of some 160 and counting hardback books, most written by leading Russian mathematicians. Besides the sheer number of volumes and hence page count, each is typically upwards of $100, so significantly less accessible in price as well...

  • Encyclopaedia of Mathematics, Springer & the European Mathematical Society, an online collection of articles on mathematical topcs.