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Dirac. A scientific biography
It starts with five overviews on the disposal of plastics and other polymeric wastes. Biodegradation, recycling, and utilisation are all considered, bringing sharply into focus the problems associated with these useful but recalcitrant materials after their initial use. It then follows with chapters by specialists on different aspects of these problems, ten on the degradability of commodity plastics and speciality polymers and ten on agricultural polymer utihsation. To speed publication the book is printed from camera-ready copy, which results in a variety of type faces. The subject matter is, however, better integrated than the presentation, and despite its apparent specialisation this text is eminently readable. I recommend it highly for all students of microbiology or chemistry with an interest in polymers and their degradation, and also for research workers in this field to broaden their understanding of the problems and some of the potential solutions to them. P. J. Whitney
Workers, Owners and Poliics in Coal Mining: An International Comparison of Industrial Relations. Edited by G. D. Feldman and K. Tenfelde. Pp. 447. Berg, Oxford. 1990.
‘Coal is the stuff from which the industrial revolution was made.’ Thus opens one of the chapters in this stimulating comparative collection on industrial relations in the coal industry. The centrality of coal for powering the steam engines that made possible both the transportation systems and heavy manufacturing that were critical for 19th century industrialization is demonstrated repeatedly in each of the chapters on Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, and the U.S.A. The book itself focuses on the 29th century and the political structures that have largely determined the form of decline in the coal industry. Tenfelde, in his introduction, emphasizes that the collection involves a rejection of classical labour history and includes analyses of traditions, institutions, and influences that have existed outside the sphere of organized labour. In practice this involves an emphasis on the importance of the tripartite relations between employers, state, and the workforce. The chapters themselves are well researched and evenly balanced, although Brodie’s chapter on American mining relies overly on one or two sources for key sections, particularly on Dix for a rather Bravermanesque characterization of working conditions underground. This is a pity, since Church’s preceding chapter on Britain recognizes the implausibility of such an interpretation in modem mining. Nevertheless, this is a well-written, interesting set of papers and will be a valuable resource for labour historians, industrial
sociologists, analysts.
and
industrial
relations’ Roger Penn
Profiles, Pathways and Dreams. Autobiographies of Eminent Chemists. From Cologne to Chapel Hill. By Ernest L. Eke/. Pp. 138. American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C. 1990. US $24.95.
One of the many ways in which Endeavour shows its splendidly civihsed attitude to science is to give interesting books to its reviewers as they go away on holiday. I received Ernest Eliel’s autobiographical account of his work ‘From Cologne to Chapel Hill’ as I left for a house, lent to me by a delightful French colleague, in the Cevennes. The book was no hardship to read on holiday. The American Chemical Society is publishing 22 books in a series entitled Profiles, Pathways and Dreams: Autobiographies of Eminent Chemists’, which are being edited by Jeffrey Seeman, who has obviously been an inspiration to his authors, to judge from this book. Ehel describes his work on stereochemistry with great clarity and with generous comments about his students, University colleagues, and other chemists with whom he has worked. He rightly emphasises the importance his undergraduates text has played in his career and indeed in the careers of many students. The least satisfying part of the book for me was that I did not come to know him any better for reading the book, yet he had an amazing start to his career. Was I meant to come away knowing so little about him? Here is someone who left his native Germany in 1938, at the age of 17 and without his parents, got himself through University Entrance Exams to the University of Edinburgh, interned in 1940 (how many other distinguished - and indeed less distinguished - citizens did we lose through such stupidity?) as an undesirable alien, somehow got to Canada, interned again, this time with antisemitic German sailors, and got to Cuba, where he took his degrees. Thence to the US. Eliel never shows what influence this had on him. The subsequent career was described in terms that could have been that of any US citizen. Perhaps that has been his secret. However, he is someone who perhaps could have looked more quizzically at the US academic scene and told us a little more of his thoughts. D. J. Waddington Dirac. A Scientific Biography. By Helge S. Kragh. Pp. 389. Cambridge University Press. 7990. f35.00, US $44.50.
Paul Dirac was one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the century, and one of the founders of quantum theory. Helge Kragh’s
biography includes four chapters on his personal life and eight on his scientific achievements, concluding with a brief account of his philosophy. Popular accounts of Dirac have concentrated on his shyness, his directness in conversation, his reliance on logic. Kragh changes little in this picture, though she goes some way towards explaining his taciturn nature by describing his father as a domestic tyrant with a distaste for social contacts. On the scientific side, much attention is paid to Dirac’s early triumphs, his work on the structure of quantum theory, and in particular his relativistic equation and prediction of the positron. Competition was fierce; Kramers was only just behind in producing a relativistic equation, and developed an enduring bitterness towards Dirac and his theories. Kragh then describes Dirac’s work on quantum electrodynamics and cosmology, as well as his prediction of the magnetic monopole. She also discusseshis famous view that mathematical beauty is the pre-eminent quality of a physical theory, though she suggests that this principle guided his work only after his major discoveries. M. A. B. Whitaker Before Newton. The Life and Times of Isaac Barrow. Edited by Mordechai Feingold. Pp. 280. Cambridge University Press. 1990. f35.00, US $49.50.
The main title seems to threaten the reader with a bout of Whig historiography, but in fact the volume re-evaluates Barrow within the proper historical and intellectual contexts, which were not those. of his famous successorin the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics. ‘By seeking to understand Barrow’s life and work primarily in the confines of the pre-Newtonian scientific framework’, writes Feingold, ‘we believe that a more balanced picture of the essence of the man and the intellectual issues that preoccupied him will emerge’ (p. x). To this end Feingold has enlisted the services of five eminent scholars: Alan Shapiro on Barrow’s Optical Lectures and his theory of image-formation; Michael Mahoney on his pivotal position as a mathematician ‘between ancients and modems’; John Gascoigne on Interregnum and Restoration Cambridge; Anthony Grafton on Barrow as a scholar; and Irene Simon on Barrow the theologian and preacher. The editor’s own contribution is a richly-detailed lC0-page biography. He usefully rounds off the volume with a catalogue of Barrow’s library, but unaccountably omits a bibliography of Barrow’s own writings and publications. None of the essays carries an appended bibliography of primary and secondary sources, and the index lists names only of Barrow’s contemporaries and predecessors. Alan Gabbey
39
Workers, Owners and Poliics in Coal Mining: An International Comparison of Industrial Relations. Edited by G. D. Feldman and K. Tenfelde. Pp. 447. Berg, Oxford. 1990.
‘Coal is the stuff from which the industrial revolution was made.’ Thus opens one of the chapters in this stimulating comparative collection on industrial relations in the coal industry. The centrality of coal for powering the steam engines that made possible both the transportation systems and heavy manufacturing that were critical for 19th century industrialization is demonstrated repeatedly in each of the chapters on Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, and the U.S.A. The book itself focuses on the 29th century and the political structures that have largely determined the form of decline in the coal industry. Tenfelde, in his introduction, emphasizes that the collection involves a rejection of classical labour history and includes analyses of traditions, institutions, and influences that have existed outside the sphere of organized labour. In practice this involves an emphasis on the importance of the tripartite relations between employers, state, and the workforce. The chapters themselves are well researched and evenly balanced, although Brodie’s chapter on American mining relies overly on one or two sources for key sections, particularly on Dix for a rather Bravermanesque characterization of working conditions underground. This is a pity, since Church’s preceding chapter on Britain recognizes the implausibility of such an interpretation in modem mining. Nevertheless, this is a well-written, interesting set of papers and will be a valuable resource for labour historians, industrial
sociologists, analysts.
and
industrial
relations’ Roger Penn
Profiles, Pathways and Dreams. Autobiographies of Eminent Chemists. From Cologne to Chapel Hill. By Ernest L. Eke/. Pp. 138. American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C. 1990. US $24.95.
One of the many ways in which Endeavour shows its splendidly civihsed attitude to science is to give interesting books to its reviewers as they go away on holiday. I received Ernest Eliel’s autobiographical account of his work ‘From Cologne to Chapel Hill’ as I left for a house, lent to me by a delightful French colleague, in the Cevennes. The book was no hardship to read on holiday. The American Chemical Society is publishing 22 books in a series entitled Profiles, Pathways and Dreams: Autobiographies of Eminent Chemists’, which are being edited by Jeffrey Seeman, who has obviously been an inspiration to his authors, to judge from this book. Ehel describes his work on stereochemistry with great clarity and with generous comments about his students, University colleagues, and other chemists with whom he has worked. He rightly emphasises the importance his undergraduates text has played in his career and indeed in the careers of many students. The least satisfying part of the book for me was that I did not come to know him any better for reading the book, yet he had an amazing start to his career. Was I meant to come away knowing so little about him? Here is someone who left his native Germany in 1938, at the age of 17 and without his parents, got himself through University Entrance Exams to the University of Edinburgh, interned in 1940 (how many other distinguished - and indeed less distinguished - citizens did we lose through such stupidity?) as an undesirable alien, somehow got to Canada, interned again, this time with antisemitic German sailors, and got to Cuba, where he took his degrees. Thence to the US. Eliel never shows what influence this had on him. The subsequent career was described in terms that could have been that of any US citizen. Perhaps that has been his secret. However, he is someone who perhaps could have looked more quizzically at the US academic scene and told us a little more of his thoughts. D. J. Waddington Dirac. A Scientific Biography. By Helge S. Kragh. Pp. 389. Cambridge University Press. 7990. f35.00, US $44.50.
Paul Dirac was one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the century, and one of the founders of quantum theory. Helge Kragh’s
biography includes four chapters on his personal life and eight on his scientific achievements, concluding with a brief account of his philosophy. Popular accounts of Dirac have concentrated on his shyness, his directness in conversation, his reliance on logic. Kragh changes little in this picture, though she goes some way towards explaining his taciturn nature by describing his father as a domestic tyrant with a distaste for social contacts. On the scientific side, much attention is paid to Dirac’s early triumphs, his work on the structure of quantum theory, and in particular his relativistic equation and prediction of the positron. Competition was fierce; Kramers was only just behind in producing a relativistic equation, and developed an enduring bitterness towards Dirac and his theories. Kragh then describes Dirac’s work on quantum electrodynamics and cosmology, as well as his prediction of the magnetic monopole. She also discusseshis famous view that mathematical beauty is the pre-eminent quality of a physical theory, though she suggests that this principle guided his work only after his major discoveries. M. A. B. Whitaker Before Newton. The Life and Times of Isaac Barrow. Edited by Mordechai Feingold. Pp. 280. Cambridge University Press. 1990. f35.00, US $49.50.
The main title seems to threaten the reader with a bout of Whig historiography, but in fact the volume re-evaluates Barrow within the proper historical and intellectual contexts, which were not those. of his famous successorin the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics. ‘By seeking to understand Barrow’s life and work primarily in the confines of the pre-Newtonian scientific framework’, writes Feingold, ‘we believe that a more balanced picture of the essence of the man and the intellectual issues that preoccupied him will emerge’ (p. x). To this end Feingold has enlisted the services of five eminent scholars: Alan Shapiro on Barrow’s Optical Lectures and his theory of image-formation; Michael Mahoney on his pivotal position as a mathematician ‘between ancients and modems’; John Gascoigne on Interregnum and Restoration Cambridge; Anthony Grafton on Barrow as a scholar; and Irene Simon on Barrow the theologian and preacher. The editor’s own contribution is a richly-detailed lC0-page biography. He usefully rounds off the volume with a catalogue of Barrow’s library, but unaccountably omits a bibliography of Barrow’s own writings and publications. None of the essays carries an appended bibliography of primary and secondary sources, and the index lists names only of Barrow’s contemporaries and predecessors. Alan Gabbey
39