"A masterly assessment of the way the idea of quanta of radiation became part of 20th-century physics. . . . The book not only deals with a topic of importance

An account of Max Planck’s construction of his theory of blackbody radiation, summarizing the established physics on which he drew. In the last year of the ni

A highly original, and truly novel, approach to theoretical reasoning in physics. This book illuminates the subject from the perspective of real physics as prac

Examines the influences on and impact of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.