Max Planck is credited with being the father of quantum theory, and his
work was described by his close friend Albert Einstein as "the basis of
all twentieth-century physics." But Planck's story is not well known,
especially in the United States. A German physicist working during the
first half of the twentieth century, his library, personal journals,
notebooks, and letters were all destroyed with his home in World War II.
What remains, other than his contributions to science, are handwritten
letters in German shorthand, and tributes from other scientists of the
time.
In Planck: Driven by Vision, Broken by War, Brandon R. Brown
interweaves the voices and writings of Planck, his family, and his
contemporaries--with many passages appearing in English for the first
time--to create a portrait of a groundbreaking physicist working in the
midst of war. Planck spent much of his adult life grappling with the
identity crisis of being an influential German with ideas that ran
counter to his government. During the later part of his life, he
survived bombings and battlefields, surgeries and blood transfusions,
all the while performing his influential work amidst a violent and
crumbling Nazi bureaucracy. When his son was accused of treason, Planck
tried to use his standing as a German "national treasure," and wrote
directly to Hitler to spare his son's life. Brown tells the story of
Planck's friendship with the far more outspoken Albert Einstein, and
shows how his work fits within the explosion of technology and science
that occurred during his life.
This story of a brilliant man living in a dangerous time gives Max
Planck his rightful place in the history of science, and it shows how
war-torn Germany deeply impacted his life and work.