Einstein's Relativity in Great Britain

From Larmor and Eddington to Penrose and Hawking: A Tale of Physicists, Astronomers, Mathematicians and Philosophers

https://doi.org/10.1142/11278 | July 2025

Pages: 250

By (author):
José M Sánchez-Ron (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain & Real Academia Española, Spain)

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ISBN: 978-981-12-0028-1 (hardcover) USD 98.00 Add to cart

Soon after their publication (1905, 1915), Einstein's special and general theories of relativity received attention by a wide variety of British scholars (astronomers, physicists, mathematicians and philosophers). That reaction varied from deep acceptance (as was the case of Arthur Eddington) to straightforward opposition. This book analyzes those reactions, which involved a large number of important scientists as well as philosophers, like Bertrand Russell or Alfred N. Whitehead. The study will cover from the 1910s till the 1960s, when the work of a group of relativists centered in London and Oxford (Penrose), Cambridge (Sciama and Hawking) as well as the Bondi's group at King's College London, who finally introduced a new, global approach to general relativity.

Contents:

Introduction
The Reception of the Special Theory of Relativity in Great Britain
The Reception of General Relativity Among British Physicists and Mathematicians (1915–1930)
Larmor, Lodge and General Relativity: The "Old Guard" Reaction to Einstein's Relativity
The Early Reaction of Relativity Among British Philosophers, or the Ductility of Philosophy
A New Generation: George Mcvittie, the "Uncompromising Empiricist"
The Renaissance of Relativity in Great Britain: From Coordinates to Global Space-Time and Black Holes
Bibliography

Readership: Historians of science, physicists, mathematicians, philosophers. General public. Science and philosophy university students.

After studying Physics in the University of Madrid, José M Sánchez-Ron obtained a PhD at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, the University of London. He is now emeritus professor of History of Science at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), where he has been also reader in Theoretical Physics. He is member of the Real Academia Española, the most important institution in Spain, formed by 46 members and dedicated to the Spanish language (he is the only historian of science who ever had been admitted). Author of many articles and books on the history of XIXth and XXth century physics, especially in Spain and Great Britain, among them, together with Paul Forman as editors, National Military Establishments and the Advancement of Science and Technolog (Kluwer, 1996). He has dedicated also great efforts to the socioeconomics history of XIXth and XXh century science, of which he published a massive El poder de la ciencia. Historia socioeconómica de la ciencia de los siglos XIX y XX, which has seen three editions, each one revised. In 2015 he received he national award in essays for his book El mundo después de la revolución. La física de la segunda mitad del siglo XX.