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Kulturgeschichte der Physik. Von den Anfängen bis heute.
German (translation)Original Hungarian
Hardcover
First published March 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 30, 2020
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.
This truly is a landmark book. and it's a great shame that the hardcover has gone out of print.
January 7, 2015
Voluminous, and opinionated, and some equations. But lots and lots of great quotations.
May 20, 2021
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.
- 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.
October 12, 2015
Comp-re-hensive!!! It's all here! A phenomenal accomplishment.
Read
January 14, 2014Amazing!
August 31, 2025
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.
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.
January 29, 2026
Made it up to Electricity and Magnetism. Not sure when I'll get back to it.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews