A Cultural History of Physics

by Karoly Simonyi

While the physical sciences are a continuously evolving source of technology and of understanding about our world, they have become so specialized and rely on so much prerequisite knowledge that for many people today the divide between the sciences and the humanities seems even greater than it was when C. P. Snow delivered his famous 1959 lecture, "The Two Cultures." In A Cultural History of Physics , Hungarian scientist and educator Károly Simonyi succeeds in bridging this chasm by describing the experimental methods and theoretical interpretations that created scientific knowledge, from ancient times to the present day, within the cultural environment in which it was formed. Unlike any other work of its kind, Simonyi’s seminal opus explores the interplay of science and the humanities to convey the wonder and excitement of scientific development throughout the ages. These pages contain an abundance of excerpts from original resources, a wide array of clear and straightforward explanations, and an astonishing wealth of insight, revealing the historical progress of science and inviting readers into a dialogue with the great scientific minds that shaped our current understanding of physics. Beautifully illustrated, accurate in its scientific content and broad in its historical and cultural perspective, this book will be a valuable reference for scholars and an inspiration to aspiring scientists and humanists who believe that science is an integral part of our culture.

Genres: Science, History, Physics, Nonfiction, History Of Science, Stem, Humanities

636 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2012

Reviews

[Mads Pihl · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible achievement that really covers the whole field and written in an engaging style with a huge amount of quotes from original sources and a fine blend of historical and mathematical material.

This truly is a landmark book. and it's a great shame that the hardcover has gone out of print.

[Tonymcgrail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Voluminous, and opinionated, and some equations. But lots and lots of great quotations.

[em · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I wasn't able to read all of this book. There's so much information and I had to return it to the library before I could get through everything. Based off what I was able to read:

- I was disappointed that the focus was mainly on the history of science in Europe/the US and Arab/Indian science was only discussed in the context of their contributions to "western" science.

- However, this book is absolutely chock full of primary sources, direct quotes, etc in the margins. It is impressively comprehensive.

- Its biggest strength, speaking as a physicist, is the in-depth discussion of mathematical and physical concepts. You can tell that this was written by a physicist. After reading a bit of popsci, it was very refreshing.

[Travis Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comp-re-hensive!!! It's all here! A phenomenal accomplishment.

[István Makai]

Amazing!

[John Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t claim to offer a fair review, having read only 65 pages of excerpts drawn from throughout this book, but what I read impressed me enough that I wanted to say something.

First: This is designed and illustrated like no physics book I’ve ever seen. It’s not much like any works of history either, although some of the same breadth of material appears in Fernand Braudel’s three-volume Civilization and Capitalism, 15th–18th Century. In truth, though, it’s not only the design but also the textual contents that are like nothing else I know of. It’s dense, challenging, and detailed—and in a certain sense very fun.

The publisher’s description uses the flat but telling phrase “the interplay of science and the humanities,” and that’s what the author covers, across centuries. If you want to know the subjects that are addressed, try to get a look at the table of contents. As for the design: one of the less illuminating (though memorable) juxtapositions shows a “Little Mermaid” statue in Copenhagen’s harbor to accompany a discussion of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. Come to think of it, that’s an apt illustration; quantum mechanics is at least as fantastic and troubling as H. C. Andersen’s fairy tale.

This could serve as a textbook, and apparently earlier versions did so, in Hungarian and German editions that either accompanied or took off from a long-running series of lectures. It would be a dream class that relied on this book—but it’s essentially a course all on its own.