Personal testimony: I had tremendous difficulty with the calculus at 
school, and indeed dropped maths in consequence. I only got what it 
was about after -- much later -- reading its history: in particular, 
Morris Klein's "Mathematics in Western Culture".

This encouraged me to go back and take Pure Maths and Applied Maths 
A-levels as a mature student.

Of course, this may demonstrate no more than that people with no 
innate technical talent can come to appreciate a subject through its history.


Julian Wells