Serving the Reich The Struggle for the Soul of Physics Under Hitler Synopsis
Shortlisted for the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books 2014.
Serving the Reich tells the story of physics under Hitler. While some scientists tried to create an Aryan physics that excluded any 'Jewish ideas', many others made compromises and concessions as they continued to work under the Nazi regime. Among them were three world-renowned physicists: Max Planck, pioneer of quantum theory, regarded it as his moral duty to carry on under the regime. Peter Debye, a Dutch physicist, rose to run the Reich's most important research institute before leaving for the United States in 1940. Werner Heisenberg, discovered the Uncertainty Principle, and became the leading figure in Germany's race for the atomic bomb. After the war most scientists in Germany maintained they had been apolitical or even resisted the regime: Debye claimed that he had gone to America to escape Nazi interference in his research; Heisenberg and others argued that they had deliberately delayed production of the atomic bomb. Mixing history, science and biography, Serving the Reich is a gripping exploration of moral choices under a totalitarian regime. Here are human dilemmas, failures to take responsibility, three lives caught between the idealistic goals of science and a tyrannical ideology.
'The story is intriguing for it reveals the lack of insight of many of the world's greatest physicists' -- Robin McKie
'Observer Ball's book shows what can happen to morality when cleverness and discovery are valued above all else' -- Philip Maughan New Statesman
'Ball does an outstanding service by reminding us how powerful and sometimes confusing the pressures were... Packed with dramatic, moving and even comical moments' -- Robert P Crease Nature
'A new book from Philip Ball is always an eagerly anticipated event, but this one exceeds expectations' -- John Gribbin Literary Review
'Ball examines sensitively the careers of three eminent physicists who continued to work in Nazi Germany, emphasising the very different ways in which each dealt (or failed to deal) with the moral dilemmas of working in an increasingly oppressive state' -- Sir Michael Berry Times Higher Education
Author
About Philip Ball
Formerly on the staff of Nature, Philip Ball is now a full-time writer. He lives in London.
