A physicist's nightmare in classical physics

Author: (American) MacArthur
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: An unusual experiment in the history of science. Its goal is social history: a portrait of German physicists in the early 20th century. However, its style is narrative. MacArthur conceives of his portrait as the finale of a patchwork physicist's life, achieving the purpose of storytelling. This physicist is entirely fictional, but he is familiar with and interacts with real people. Based on pure and extensive scholarship, his authoritative portrait has the vitality and candor only a story can possess. — T.S. Kuhn
The author of this book makes an unusual attempt when introducing the history of physics. He creates a fictional elderly theoretical physicist from early 20th-century Germany—Professor V. Jacob—as he interacts with real-life famous physicists. Through solid scientific content and rich thoughts, as well as detailed life stories, the book reflects the political and academic issues encountered by this generation of physicists in their lives and work. By mastering the scientific content and researching relevant archival materials, the author writes this innovative and lyrical book with the precision of a physicist and the passion of a poet, drawing both professional and non-professional readers into this magical story, allowing them to understand an extremely important stage in the development of physics.