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The Oxford Handbook of the History of Physics brings together cutting-edge writing by more than twenty leading authorities on the history of physics from the seventeenth century to the present day. By presenting a wide diversity of studies in a single volume, it provides authoritative introductions to scholarly contributions that have tended to be dispersed in journals and books not easily accessible to the general reader. While the core thread remains the theories and experimental practices of physics, the Handbook contains chapters on other dimensions that have their place in any rounded history. These include the role of lecturing and textbooks in the communication of knowledge, the contribution of instrument-makers and instrument-making companies in providing for the needs of both research and lecture demonstrations, and the growing importance of the many interfaces between academic physics, industry, and the military.
Introduction, Jed Buchwald and Robert Fox
Part I: Physics and the New Science
1: Was there a Scientific Revolution?, John Heilbron
2: Galileo's Mechanics of Natural Motion and Projectiles, Noel Swerdlow
3: Cartesian Physics, John Schuster
4: Physics and the Instrument-Makers, 1550-1700, Anthony Turner
5: Newton's Principia, Eric Schliesser and Chris Smeenk
6: Newton's Optics, Alan Shapiro
7: Experimentation in the Physical Sciences of the 17th Century, Bertoloni Meli
8: Mathematics and the New Sciences, Niccolò Guicciardini
Part II: The Long Eighteenth Century
9: The Physics of Imponderable Fluids, Giuliano Pancaldi
10: Physics on Show: Entertainment, Demonstration, and Research in the Eighteenth Century, Larry Stewart
11: Instruments and Instrument-Makers, 1700-1850, Anita McConnell
12: Mechanics in the Eighteenth Century, Sandro Caparrini, and Craig Fraser
13: Laplace and the Physics of Short-Range Forces, Robert Fox
14: Electricity and Magnetism to Volta, Jed Buchwald
Part III: Fashioning the Discipline: from Natural Philosophy to Physics
15: Optics in the Nineteenth Century, Jed Buchwald
16: Thermal Physics and Thermodynamics, Hasok Chang
17: Engineering Energy: Constructing a New Physics for Victorian Britain, Crosbie Smith
18: Electromagnetism and Field Physics, Friedrich Steinle
19: Electrodynamics from Thomson and Maxwell to Hertz, Jed Buchwald
20: From Workshop to Factory: The evolution of Instrument Making Industry, 1850-1930, Paolo Brenni
21: Physics Textbooks and Textbook Physics in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Josep Simon
22: Physics and Medicine, Iwan Morus
23: Physics and Metrology, Kathy Olesko
Part IV: Modern Physics
24: Rethinking 'Classical Physics', Graeme Gooday and Daniel Mitchell
25: The Emergence of Statistical Mechanics, Olivier Darrigol and Jürgen Renn
26: Three and a Half Principles: The Origins of Modern Relativity Theory, Daniel Kennefick
27: Quantum Physics, Suman Seth
28: The Silicon Tide: Relations between Things Epistemic and Things of Function in the Semiconductor World, Terry Shinn
29: Physics and Cosmology, Helge Kragh
Description
The Oxford Handbook of the History of Physics brings together cutting-edge writing by more than twenty leading authorities on the history of physics from the seventeenth century to the present day. By presenting a wide diversity of studies in a single volume, it provides authoritative introductions to scholarly contributions that have tended to be dispersed in journals and books not easily accessible to the general reader. While the core thread remains the theories and experimental practices of physics, the Handbook contains chapters on other dimensions that have their place in any rounded history. These include the role of lecturing and textbooks in the communication of knowledge, the contribution of instrument-makers and instrument-making companies in providing for the needs of both research and lecture demonstrations, and the growing importance of the many interfaces between academic physics, industry, and the military.
