THE PHYSICISTS: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America

by Daniel J. Kevles

This magnificent account of the coming of age of physics in America has been heralded as the best introduction to the history of science in the United States. Unsurpassed in its breadth and literary style, Kevles's account portrays the brilliant scientists who became a powerful force in bringing the world into a revolutionary new era. The book ranges widely as it links these exciting developments to the social, cultural, and political changes that occurred from the post-Civil War years to the present. Throughout, Kevles keeps his eye on the central question of how an avowedly elitist enterprise grew and prospered in a democratic culture. In this new edition, the author has brought the story up to date by providing an extensive, authoritative, and colorful account of the Superconducting Super Collider, from its origins in the international competition and intellectual needs of high-energy particle physics, through its establishment as a multibillion-dollar project, to its termination, in 1993, as a result of angry opposition within the American physics community and the Congress.

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

489 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 12, 1977

About the author

Daniel J. Kevles (born 2 March 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American historian of science. He is currently the Stanley Woodward Professor of History at Yale University (a position he assumed in 2001) and an Adjunct Professor of Journalism at Columbia University. He was previously a professor of the humanities at the California Institute of Technology, where he also served as faculty chair, from 1964 to 2001.

His research interests have been primarily on the history of science in America, the interactions between science and society, and environmentalism. He is best known for his survey works, which generalize large amounts of historical information into readable and coherent narratives. His books include The Physicists (1978), a history of the American physics community, In the Name of Eugenics (1985), currently the standard text on the history of eugenics in the United States, and The Baltimore Case (1998),[1] a study of accusations of scientific fraud.

The mathematician Serge Lang subsequently waged an unsuccessful campaign to prevent Kevles from being granted tenure at Yale, claiming that Kevles' book was too sympathetic to David Baltimore.[2] Although sharply criticized by Lang and some others as well,[3] it was generally praised for meticulous scholarship and detailed reporting.[4][5][6]

In 2001 Kevles was awarded the Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society. Recently he has been working on a history of the uses of intellectual property in relation to the life sciences from the eighteenth century to the present.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a physicist, I found this to be a very informative book. I had only a spotty knowledge of the history of physics and this helped me to understand its place in American society. See Mark Bowles review above for a very good description of what this book is about. I highly recommend this book to any practicing physicists or to those who have a deeper interest in the field.

Perhaps most interesting to me was the role of money and patronage in the advent of big physics. Physics research relied on rich benefactors such as the Rockefellers and Carnegie in its earliest stages of development after the civil war. After this period the government began to fund more research, particularly for its war efforts and to support industry. Kevles thoroughly addresses the conflict between applied and "pure" research. As the book was written mostly in the 70s, it is interesting juxtaposition to what has happened since. Currently public/private partnerships are all the rage, but it seems this situation in not new.

I had a vague understanding that the world wars had fueled accelerated developments in physics, but this book made that clear in very great detail. I also enjoyed his take on the role of physicists in the larger society and how we have been viewed over the decades. Sometimes seen as brilliant and special people, sometimes elitist and dangerous. I think all of these views are true to some extent.

Much has changed in the world of physics since this was written, and it is true that it is the story primarily of the "big physics" of particle accelerators. Much has happened since, particularly in my field of biophysics, but that is the subject of another history. This is a great place to start for a background to set the stage for what has happened since the 1990s.

[Hagan A · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of details in this book and if you aren’t a physics buff many of the details aren’t that interesting. The writing was fine, it wasn’t inspiring, but it didn’t hinder my reading either.

[Yilin Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chpt 1:
Wow the Franklin's electricity bottle story I've heard so many times is actually a legacy of Baconian teaching where the emphasis is on experimentation and empirical knowledge. Absolutely fascinating.

[Mark Bowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. Who is this book about? This book is about the Los Alamos generation physicists. They had been weaned on the new quantum mechanics, built the atomic bomb, and for 25 years after 1945 operated as a “high priesthood” in the US. The book is about the roots of their achievements with the efforts of the physicists in the 50 years after the Civil War.
2. Themes: One of the central themes is how an avowedly elitist enterprise grew and prospered in a Democratic culture. What brought them to power was the identification of physics with the material (solid state physics: transistors and chips) and military (the physicists war was WWII, they built radar, rockets, and the atomic bomb) elements of national security. But, conflicts arise because of the elitism of physics and the democracy of America. Today, physics is not broadening its social base by bringing in women or blacks into the field. Other conflicts include those between the celebration of physics as high culture and its subordination to industrial profit and military prowess. Also, there are conflicts between the desire to built monumental experimental facilities (such as the supercollider) and the necessity to meet ordinary social needs.
3. Historiography: This book is both internal and external because Kevles argues for “mutual change.” The physicists changed the world, and the world (academic, cultural, institutional, and governmental) changed the physicists. Kevles is perhaps a bit too uncritical of the physicists in this book.
4. Style: This is a long book (25 chapters) which are not structured in such a way as to provide quick access to the main ideas of the book. An excellent essay on sources provides an extended discussion on the numerous manuscript and personal interviews conducted by Kevles.

[Edward Fenner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good and pretty thorough account of the history of this community. It is skewed a bit too heavily on CERN and other Big Science projects and does not delve into the little or progenitor physics. Rutherford is only lightly covered. Van de Graaff is mentioned briefly. Electrostatic accelerators are largely overlooked which is unfortunate.

[Jeff]

Just started this. From the first chapter I'm not sure i'm going to make it through it. But who knows it might pick up.