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History of Twentieth-Century Physics

January 29, 1998

Jimena Canales, Michela Gordin, Kenji Ito, Jeremiah James, Edward Jones-Imhotep, and Theresa Levitt with Peter Galison

Introduction: General Works

Nye, Mary Jo. 1996. Before Big Science: The Pursuit of Modern Chemistry and Physics, 1800-1940. New York: Twayne Publishers.
Segre, Emilio. 1980. From X-Rays to Quarks: Modern Physicists and Their Discoveries. San Fransisco: Freeman.
Kuhn, Thomas. 1977. The Essential Tension. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. - selections on the history of physics

Part I: 19th Century Physical Sciences

1-1 German System of the 19th Century Physical Sciences

Jungnickel, Christa and Russell McCormmach. 1986. The Intellectual Mastery of Nature: Theoretical Physics from Ohm to Einstein. 2 vols, Chicago: Unviersity of Chicago Press.
Olesko, Kathryn. 1991. Physics as a Calling: Discipline and Practice in the Koenigsberg Seminar for Physics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Cahan, David. 1989. An Institute for an Empire: The Physikalisch-Technische Reichanstalt 1871--1918. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Johnson, Allan. 1990. The Kaiser's Chemists: Science and Modernization in Imperial Germany. Chapel Hill, N. C.: University of North Carolina Press.

1-2: From Kelvin to Maxwell

Buchwald, Jed Z. 1985. From Maxwell to Microphysics: Aspects of Electromagnetic Theory in the Last Quarter of the Nineteenth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hunt, Bruce. 1991. The Maxwellians. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Smith, Crosbie and M. Norton Wise. 1989. Energy and Empire: A Biographical Study of Lord Kelvin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Daston, Lorraine. 1986. "The Physicalist Tradition in Early 19th-Century French Geometry". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 17: 269-295
Wise, M. Norton. 1982. "The Maxwell Literature and British Dynamical Theory". Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences. 13: 175-205

1-3: Others

Wise, Norton, ed. 1995. The Values of Precision. Princeton: Princeton University Press. - selected chapters

Part II: Relativity and Cosmology

2-1: Genesis and Reception of Special Relativity

Holton, Gerald. 1973[1988]. "On the Origin of the Special Theory of Relativity.'' in Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought: Kepler to Einstein. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. pp. 191-236.
Holton, Gerald. 1973[1988]. "Einstein, Michelson, and the 'Crucial' Experiment". in Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought: Kepler to Einstein. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. pp. 279-370.
Holton, Gerald. 1973[1988]. "Mach, Einstein, and the Search for Reality.'' in Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought: Kepler to Einstein. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. pp. 237-277.
Warwick, Andrew, 1992. "Cambridge Mathematics and Cavendish Physics: Cunningham, Campbell, and Einstein's Relativity, 1905--1911. Part I: The Uses of Theory.'' Studies in History and Phylosophy of Science. 23: 625-656.
Warwick, Andrew. 1993. "Cambridge Mathematics and Cavendish Physics: Cunningham, Campbell, and Einstein's Relativity, 1905--1911. Part II: Comparing Traditions in Cambridge Physics.'' Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. 24: 1-25.
Miller, Arthur I. 1982. "The Special Relativity Theory: Einstein's Response to the Physics of 1905". in Gerald Holton and Yehuda Elkana, eds. Albert Einstein, historical and cultural perspectives: the centennial symposium in Jerusalem. Princeton, 1982
Galison, Peter. 1979. "Minkowski's Space-Time: From Visual Thinking to the Absolute World.'' Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences. 10: 85-121.

2-2: General Relativity and Cosmology

Pais, Abraham. 1982. Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein. New York: Oxford University Press. - Chapter 4
Howard, Don and John Stachel, eds. 1989. Einstein and the History of General Relativity. Boston: BirkhIuser.
Kragh, Helge. 1996. Cosmology and Controversy: The Historical Development of Two Theories of the Universe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Part III: Quantum Theory

3-1: Early Quantum Theory

Kuhn, Thomas S. 1978. Blackbody Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894-1912. New York:
Galison, Peter. 1981. "Kuhn and the quantum controversy". British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 32: 71-85.
Jammer, Max. 1989. The Conceptual Development of Quantum Theory. Los Angeles: Tomash Publishers; Woodbury, N.Y.: American Institute of Physics. - Earlier Chapters.
Stuewer, Roger H. The Compton Effect: Turning Point in Physics. New York: Science History Publications.

3-2: Quantum Mechanics: Its Genesis of Quantum Mechanics, Statistical Interpretation, and Uncertainty Relation

Jammer, Max. 1989. The Conceptual Development of Quantum Theory. Los Angeles: Tomash Publishers ; Woodbury, N.Y.: American Institute of Physics. - Later Chapters.
Hendry, John. 1984. The Creation of Quantum Mechanics and the Bohr-Pauli Dialogue. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Beller, Mara. 1983. "Matrix Theory Before Schrodinger: Philosophy, Problems,Consequences,'' Isis 74: 469-491.
Beller, Mara. 1990. "Born's Probabilistic Interpretation: A Case-Study of Concepts in Flux.'' Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 21: 563-588.
Cassidy, David. 1993. Uncertainty : The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg. New York: W. H. Freeman.
Heilbron, J.L. and T.S. Kuhn. 1969. "The Genesis of the Bohr Atom." Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences. 1: 211-290

3-3: Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: Complementarity, "Copenhagen Spirit'' and Bohr-Einstein Debate

Jammer, Max. 1974. The philosophy of quantum mechanics; the interpretations of quantum mechanics in historical perspective. New York: Wiley. - Chapter on Bohr-Einstein Dialogue.
Beller, Mara. 1992. "The Birth of Bohr's Complementarity: The Context and the Dialogues.'' Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. 23: 147-180.
Murdoch, Dugald. 1987. Niels Bohr's Philosophy of Physics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bohr, Niel. 1949. "Discussion with Einstein on Epistemological Problems in Atomic Physics.'' in Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist. edited by P. A. Schilpp, La Salle: Open Court, pp. 201-241.
Einstein, Albert, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen. 1935. "Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality be Considered Complete?'' Physical Review 47: 777-780.
Bohr, Niels, 1935."Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality be Considered Complete?'' Physical Review 47: 777-780.
Beller, Mara and Arthur Fine. 1994. "Bohr's Response to EPR,'' in Niels Bohr and Contemporary Philosophy. edited by Jan Faye and Henry J. Folse, pp. 1-31
Fine, Arthur. 1986. The Shaky Game: Einstein, Realism, and the Quantum Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Heilbron, John. 1988. "The Earliest Missionaries of Copenhagen Spirit,'' in Science in Reflection (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 110), edited by Edna Ullmann-Margalit. Dordrecht : Kluwer Academic.
Aaserud, Finn. 1990. Redirecting science: Niels Bohr, philanthropy, and the rise of nuclear physics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Pinch, Trevor. 1977. "What Does a Proof Do if It Does not Prove?: A Study of the Social Conditions and Metaphysical Divisions Leading to David Bohm and von Neumann Failing to Communicate in Quantum Physics,'' in Social Production of Scientific Knowledge. edited by Everett Mendelsohn. Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 171-216.

3-4 Physical Chemistry and Quantum Chemistry

Servos, John. W. 1990. Physical Chemistry from Ostwald to Pauling: The Making of a Science in America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Nye, Mary Jo. 1993. From Chemical Philosphy to Chemical Physics: Dynamics of Matter and Dynamics of Disciplines, 1800-1950. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Schweber, Silvan S. 1990. "The Young John Clarke Slater and the Development of Quantum Chemistry,'' Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 20: 339-406.
Gavroglu, Kostas and Ana Isabel Simoes, "The Americans, the Germans, and the Beginning of Quantum Chemistry: The Confluence of Diverging Traditions,'' Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 25: 47-110.
Wise, George. 1983. "Ionists in Industry: Physical Chemistry at General Electric, 1900-1915". Isis 74: 7-21

3-5: Condensed Matter Physics

Hoddeson, Lillian, Ernest Braun, JDrgen Teichmann, and Spencer Weart, eds. 1992. Out of the Crystal Maze: Chapters from the History of Solid-State Physics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

3-6: Quantum Electrodynamics and Quantum Field Theory

Miller, Arthur I. 1994. Early Quantum Electrodynamics: A Source Book. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. - Introduction.
Brown, Laurie M., ed. 1993. Renormalization: From Lorentz to Landau (and Beyond). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Anderson, Philip. 1972. "More is Different". Science
Schweber, Silvan S. 1994. QED and the Men Who Made It: Dyson, Feynman, Schwinger, and Tomonaga. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Cao, Tian Yu. 1997. Conceptual Developments of 20th Century Field Theories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Part IV: Physical Sciences Communities in Prewar and Wartime Societies

4-1: Germany and Britain: Forman Thesis and the Reception of Quantum Mechanics

Forman, Paul. 1971. "Weimar Culture, Causality, and Quantum Theory, 1918--27: Adaption by German Physicists and Mathematicians to a Hostile Intellectual Environment,'' Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences. 3: 1-116.
Forman, Paul. 1978. "The Reception of an Acausal Quantum Mechanics in Germany and Britain,'' in The Reception of Unconventional Science. edited by S. Mauskopf.
Hendry, John. 1980. "Weimar Culture and Quantum Causality,'' in Darwin to Einstein: Historical Studies on Science and Belief edited by C. Chant and J. Fauvel. New York: Longman, pp. 303-326.
Radder, Hans. 1983. "Kramer and the Forman Thesis". History of Science. 21: 165-182
Kraft, P. and P. Kroes. 1984. "Adaption of Scientific Knowledge to an Intellectual Environment: Paul Forman's 'Weimar Culture, Causality, and Quantum Theory, 1918-1927': Analysis and Criticism,'' Centaurus 27: 76-99.

4-2: Germany and Russia: Physics and Ideologies

Cassidy, David. 1992. Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company.
Byerchen, Alan. 1977. Scientists Under Hitler: Politics and the Physics Community in the Third Reich. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Walker, Mark. 1989. German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Walker, Mark. 1995. Nazi Science: Myth, Truth, and the German Atomic Bomb. New York: Plenum Press.
Wise, M. Norton. 1994. Pascual Jordan: Quantum Mechanics, Psychology, and National Socialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Josephson, Paul. 1988. Physics and Chemistry in Revolutionary Russia. Cambridge: MIT Press
Graham, Loren, 1987. Science, Philosophy and Human Behaviour in the Soviet Union. New York: Columbia University Press. - chapters relating to physical sciences and cosmology

4-3. Physical Sciences in the United States: New Physics and Politics of Science

Schweber, S.S. 1986. "The Empiricist Temper Regnant: Theoretical Physics in the United States, 1920-1950,'' Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences. 17: 55--98.
Kevles, Daniel. 1995. The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Moyer, Albert E. [1986]. "History of Physics,'' Osiris. Historial Writing on American Science. edited by Sally Kohlstedet and Margaret Rossiter. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 163-182.

Part V: Physical Sciences and the War

5-1: Development of Atomic Bomb and the Decision to Built the Hydrogen Bomb in the United States

Sherwin, Martin J. 1987. A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and the Origins of the Arms Race. New York: Vintage.
Galison, Peter and Jeremy Bernstein. 1989. "In Any Light: Scientists and the Decision to Build the Hydrogen Bomb,'' Historical Studies in the Physical and Biologicla Sciences 19: 267-347.
Hoddeson, Lillian. 1992."Mission Change in the Large Laboratory.'' in Big Science. edited by Peter Galison and Bruce Hevly. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 265-289
Rhodes, Richard. 1986. The Making of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Simon & Schuster
Holloway, David. 1994. Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Part VII Physical Sciences after the War

6-1: Big Science, Military Connection and Nuclear Fear

Forman, Paul. 1987. "Behind Quantum Electronics: National Security as Basis for Physical Research in the United States, 1940-1960.'' Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 18: 149-229.
Owens, Larry. "MIT and the Federal 'Angel': Academic R&D and Federal-Private Cooperation Before World War II". Isis. 81: 188-213
Galison, Peter and Bruce Hevly (ed.). Big Science. Stanford: Stanford University Press. - Selections.
Leslie, Stuart W. 1993. The Cold War and the American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford. New York: Columbia University Press.
Weart, Spencer R. 1988. Nuclear Fear: A History of Images. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

6-2: High-Energy Physics after the War

Galison, Peter. 1987. How Experiments End. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Galison, Peter. 1997. Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gusterson, Hugh. 1996. "Nuclear Weapons Testing: Scientific Experiment as Political Ritual". in Naked Science: Anthropological Inquiry into Power, Boundaries and Knowledge. edited by Laura Nader. New York: Routledge.
Pickering, Andrew. 1984. Constructing Quarks: A Sociological History of Particle Physics. Edingburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Pickering, Andrew. 1995. The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency, and Science. Chicago : University of Chicago Press. - Chapters related to high-energy physics
Traweek, Sharon. 1988. Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High Energy Physicists. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Contact

Email: galison@fas.harvard.edu
Phone: (617) 495-3544

Peter's Work

Classes:

HS 97b: Tutorial - Sophomore Year
HS 120: History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
HS 121: History and Philosophy of Experimentation
HS 152: Filming Science
HS 222: Research in the History and Philosophy of Physical Sciences
HS 283: Technoprivacy
HS 295r: Critical History
General Examination (Ph.D.)
Science A-41: The Einstein Revolution