Quantum Mechanics Science and Society

Modern science has changed every aspect of life in ways that cannot be compared to developments of previous eras. This four-volume set presents key developments within modern physical science and the effects of these discoveries on modern global life. The first two volumes explore the history of the concept of relativity, the cultural roots of science, the concept of time and gravity before, during, and after Einstein's theory, and the cultural reception of relativity. Volume 3 explores the impact of modern science upon global politics and the creation of a new kind of war, and Volume 4 details the old and new efforts surrounding the elucidation of the quantum world, as well as the cultural impact of particle physics. This reprint collection pools the best scholarship available, collected from a large array of difficult to acquire books, journals, and pamphlets. Each volume begins with an introductory essay, written by one of the top scholars in the history of science. Students and scholars of modern culture, science, and society will find these volumes a veritable research gold mine.

Kuhn, Thomas. Revisiting Planck. Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 14 (1984). Klein, Martin. Thermodynamics in Einstein's Thought. Science 157 (1967). Klein, Martin. Einstein, Specific Heats, and the Early Quantum Theory. Science 148 (1965). Darrigol, Olivier. Classical Concepts in Bohr's Atomic Theory (1913-1925). Physis 32 (1997). MacKinnon, Edward. Heisenberg, Models, and the Rise of Matrix Mechanics. Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 8 (1977). Wessels, Linda. Schrodinger's Route to Wave Mechanics. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 10 (1977). Cassidy, David. Heisenberg, Uncertainty, and the Quantum Revolution. Scientific American 266 (May 1992). Kragh, Helge. The Genesis of Dirac's Relativistic Theory of Electrons. Archive for History of Exact Sciences 24 (1981). Forman, Paul. Weimar Culture, Causality, and Quantum Theory, 1918-1927: Adaptation by German Physicists and Mathematicians to a Hostile Intellectual Environment. In Colin Chant and John Fauvel, eds., Darwin to Einstein: Historical Studies on Science and Belief (New York, NY: Longman, 1980). Beller, Mara. Born's Probabilistic Interpretation: A Case Study of 'Concepts in Flux'. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 21 (1990). Holton, Gerald. The Roots of Complementarity. Daedalus 99 (1970). Heilbron, John. The Earliest Missionaries of the Copenhagen Spirit. Revue d'Histoire des Sciences 38 (1985). Wise, M. Norton. Pascual Jordan: Quantum Mechanics, Psychology, National Socialism. In Mark Walker and Monika Rechenberg, eds., Science, Technology, and National Socialism . (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1994). Fine, Arthur. Einstein's Critique of Quantum Theory: The Roots and Significance of EPR. In P. Barker and C.G. Shugart, eds., After Einstein (Memphis, TN: Memphis State University Press, 1981). Assmus, Alexi. The Americanization of Molecular Physics. Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 23 (1992).

Peter Galison is Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University and a premier authority in the field. In 1997, he was named a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow; in 1999, he was a winner of the Max Planck Prize given by the Max Planck Gesellschaft and Humboldt Stiftung. His is author of numerous works, including, most recently, Picturing Science, Producing Art (Routledge, 1998) and The Architecture of Science (MIT, 1999). Michael Gordin and David Kaiser are both at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.