University of Chicago Press
Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics Under Hitler
Key Metrics
- Philip Ball
- University of Chicago Press
- Hardcover
- 9780226204574
- 9.2 X 6.2 X 1 inches
- 1.25 pounds
- History > Military - World War II
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Mixing history, science, and biography, Ball's gripping exploration of the lives of scientists under Nazism offers a powerful portrait of moral choice and personal responsibility, as scientists navigated the grey zone between complicity and resistance. Ball's account of the different choices these three men and their colleagues made shows how there can be no clear-cut answers or judgement of their conduct. Yet, despite these ambiguities, Ball makes it undeniable that the German scientific establishment as a whole mounted no serious resistance to the Nazis, and in many ways acted as a willing instrument of the state.
Serving the Reich considers what this problematic history can tell us about the relationship of science and politics today. Ultimately, Ball argues, a determination to present science as an abstract inquiry into nature that is above politics can leave science and scientists dangerously compromised and vulnerable to political manipulation.
Author Bio
Philip Ball is a freelance science writer. He worked previously at Nature for over 20 years, first as an editor for physical sciences (for which his brief extended from biochemistry to quantum physics and materials science) and then as a Consultant Editor. His writings on science for the popular press have covered topical issues ranging from cosmology to the future of molecular biology.
Philip is the author of many popular books on science, including works on the nature of water, pattern formation in the natural world, color in art, the science of social and political philosophy, the cognition of music, and physics in Nazi Germany. He has written widely on the interactions between art and science, and has delivered lectures to scientific and general audiences at venues ranging from the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) to the NASA Ames Research Center, London's National Theatre and the London School of Economics.
Philip continues to write regularly for Nature. He has contributed to publications ranging from New Scientist to the New York Times, the Guardian, the Financial Times and New Statesman. He is a contributing editor of Prospect magazine (for which he writes a science blog), and also a columnist for Chemistry World, Nature Materials, and the Italian science magazine Sapere. He has broadcast on many occasions on radio and TV, and is a presenter of "Science Stories" on BBC Radio 4. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, sits on the editorial board of Chemistry World and Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, and is a board member of the RESOLV network on solvation science at the Ruhr University of Bochum.
Philip has a BA in Chemistry from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Physics from the University of Bristol.
Source: PhilipBall.co.uk
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