At the end of the nineteenth century, some physicists believed that the
basic principles underlying their subject were already known, and that
physics in the future would only consist of filling in the details. They
could hardly have been more wrong. The past century has seen the rise of
quantum mechanics, relativity, cosmology, particle physics, and
solid-state physics, among other fields. These subjects have
fundamentally changed our understanding of space, time, and matter. They
have also transformed daily life, inspiring a technological revolution
that has included the development of radio, television, lasers, nuclear
power, and computers. In Quantum Generations, Helge Kragh, one of the
world's leading historians of physics, presents a sweeping account of
these extraordinary achievements of the past one hundred years.
The first comprehensive one-volume history of twentieth-century physics,
the book takes us from the discovery of X rays in the mid-1890s to
superstring theory in the 1990s. Unlike most previous histories of
physics, written either from a scientific perspective or from a social
and institutional perspective, Quantum Generations combines both
approaches. Kragh writes about pure science with the expertise of a
trained physicist, while keeping the content accessible to
nonspecialists and paying careful attention to practical uses of
science, ranging from compact disks to bombs. As a historian, Kragh
skillfully outlines the social and economic contexts that have shaped
the field in the twentieth century. He writes, for example, about the
impact of the two world wars, the fate of physics under Hitler,
Mussolini, and Stalin, the role of military research, the emerging
leadership of the United States, and the backlash against science that
began in the 1960s. He also shows how the revolutionary discoveries of
scientists ranging from Einstein, Planck, and Bohr to Stephen Hawking
have been built on the great traditions of earlier centuries.
Combining a mastery of detail with a sure sense of the broad contours of
historical change, Kragh has written a fitting tribute to the scientists
who have played such a decisive role in the making of the modern world.
