Goldberg S. Understanding Relativity: Origin and Impact of a Scientific Revolution

Birkhäuser, 1984. — 494 p.The central subject matter of this book is Einstein's special theory of relativiry. While it is a book that is written primarily for a lay audience this does not necessarily mean an audience not versed in the ways of doing science. Rather, this book is written for anyone wishing to consider the nature of the scientific enterprise: where ideas come from, how they become established and accepted, what the relationships are among theories, predictions, and measurements, or the relationship between ideas in a scientific theory and the values held to be important within the larger culture. It is a common view in our culture that the status of knowledge within science is totally different from the status of knowledge in other areas of human endeavor. It is the purpose of this book to challenge the belief that scientific knowledge is different from other kinds of knowledge.
The second part of the book is devoted to an examination of how the special theory of relativity was received in the four cultures responsible for more than ninety-nine percent of the literature about it in the years following publication by Albert Einstein in September, 1905. We can identify within the matrix of the responses of the scientists in the four countries, something which we will call "national styles" about how the theory was understood. We can also learn how those national styles are comprehensible within traditional ways of practicing science in those cultures as well as being compatible with other facets of the social institutions of those cultures.
In the third part of this work, we raise the question of how the theory, which was initially found unacceptable in all four of the cultures, was assimilated not only within the scientific communities but within the general societies. Rather than examine the history of that assimilation in each of the four countries, the assimilation of relativity in the Uoited States is used as an exemplar.The Creation of the Theory of Relativity
Science, Logic, and Objectivity.
The Rise and Fall of the Mechanical World View.
Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity and Its Consequences.
Further Consequences of the Heuristic Nature of the Special Theory of Relativity.
The General Theory of Relativity.
The Early Response to the Special Theory of Relativity, 1905-1911
When a Hundred Flowers Bloom: The German Response.
As If It Never Happened: The French Response.
Defending the Ether: The British Response.
Defending the Practical: The American Response.
From Response to Assimilation
Relativity in America, 1912-1980.
Relativity and Revolutions in Science.