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Frequently Used Textbooks and References [back to top]
Cohen, I. Bernard. The Birth of a New Physics,
rev. ed. (New York: Norton, 1985) - Physics in the scientific revolution,
16th through 17th century. 
Holton, Gerald, and Stephen Brush. Physics, the Human Adventure: From Copernicus to Einstein and Beyond (New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001) - Teaching physics with
an accurate historial perspective.
Purrington, Robert D. Physics
in the Nineteenth Century. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press, 1997) - Survey of the great breakthroughs in electromagnetism,
thermodynamics, etc.
Jungnickel, Christa and McCormmach, Russell. Intellectual Mastery of Nature. Theoretical Physics from Ohm to Einstein
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, c1986). 2 vols. - The emergence
of theoretical physics as a discipline, mostly in Germany and Austria,
1850 to 1925.
Nye, Mary Jo. Before
Big Science: The Pursuit of Modern Chemistry and Physics 1800-1940
(New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996) - Thorough study of
the two sciences together, including social context.
Segrè, Emilio. From
X-Rays to Quarks: Modern Physicists and Their Discoveries.
(New York: W.H. Freeman & Co., 1980) - A very readable first-hand
account of the history of 20th century physics by an important physicist.
Kragh, Helge. Quantum
Generations : A History of Physics in the Twentieth Century. (Princeton,
NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1999) - Comprehensive but compact survey
of the most important developments.
Supplee, Curt. Physics in the 20th Century.
(New York: Abrams, 1999)
- Entertaining history written by a science journalist, with many fine
pictures.
Kevles, Daniel J. The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America.rev. edition
(Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1995) - The story of
American physicists from the 1870s through the death of the Superconducting
Super Collider in 1993.
Dictionary of Scientific Biography.16 vols. (New York: Scribner, 1970-1980) - Definitive short biographies of several thousand of the most important scientists of all times, excluding living ones.
Weaver, Jefferson H., ed. The World of Physics:
A Small Library of the Literature of Physics from Antiquity to the Present
: The Einstein Universe and the Bohr Atom. 3 vols. (New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1987) - In their own words: an anthology of original
writings.
Related Syllabi [back to top]
Our set of History of Physics Syllabi
History of Science Society Syllabi
Twentieth Century Science and Technology (University of Minnesota)
Other Resources [back to top]
Our online exhibits and resources links
Our bibliographies and links on
Marie Curie,
Einstein,
Werner Heisenberg,
E.O. Lawrence,
Andrei Sakharov,
and the Transistor
The American Physical Society has a fine online wall chart: "A Century of Physics" covering 1900-2000
Teaching resources from the History of Science Society
Syllabus Finder from the Center for History and New Media
Other history of science
links
