The Roots of Special Relativity: Science and Society

by Galison,Peter; Galison,Peter

• ISBN13: 9780415937153
• ISBN10: 0415937159
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-10-26
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

Volume Introduction	vii
Approaches to 1905: Intellectual, Cultural, Material
On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies	1	(23)
Albert Einstein
Mach, Einstein, and the Search for Reality	24	(41)
Gerald Holton
Einstein and the Cultural Roots of Modern Science	65	(44)
Gerald Holton
Henri Poincare's Criticism of Fin De Siecle Electrodynamics	109	(44)
Olivier Darrigol
Reconsidering a Scientific Revolution: the Case of Einstein Versus Lorentz	153	(15)
Michael Janssen
The Special Relativity Theory: Einstein's Response to the Physics of 1905	168	(25)
Arthur L Miller
Einstein's Clocks: The Place of Time	193	(36)
Peter Galison
Reading Relativity
Understanding the History of Special Relativity	229	(20)
David Cassidy
The Relativity Revolution in Germany	249	(54)
Lewis Pyenson
Cultural Issues in the Reception of Relativity	303	(20)
Thomas Glick
In Defense of Ether: The British Response to Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, 1905-1911	323	(38)
Stanley Goldberg
Cambridge Mathematics and Cavendish Physics: Cunningham, Campbell and Einstein's Relativity 1905-1911: Part 1: The Uses of Theory	361	(32)
Andrew Warwick
Acknowledgments	393