The full proper and true bibliographic citation: Andrew Warwick, Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003)
Main field/subfields and interlocutors: - Cultural and social history of mathematical physics
- Mary Hesse; Simon Shaffer (supervisors); Feingold; Rob Iliffe - Kuhn; Foucault (for their focus on the social conditions, especially pedagogy, in the formation of scientific disciplines) - Goody, Latour (offering cultural anthropological and sociological terminology and methodology, e.g. “the Great Divide” between expert and non-expert; “symmetry” of STS) - Shaffer, Shapin, Iliffe, Galison, McCormmach etc. (historians of science) - Material culture (in mathematical studies)
Periodization: 1760s to 1930s
Especially major people/places: Cambridge University; James Clerk Maxwell; Albert Einstein; Joseph Larmour (as theorists); Edward Routh (educator)
Main sources/archives: Lecture notes; syllabi; exam papers
Main argument(s):
Taking the relatively longer timeframe of successive generations of teachers and students, Warwick aims to show how the esoteric field of mathematical physics was not only contingent on the cultural and social institutional structures of Cambridge University, but also relied specifically practical teaching methodologies to incorporate changing theoretical knowledge.
Structure of book:
Ch. 2-6 examines the culture of Cambridge as a site of pedagogical innovation [ca. 1770-1880] Ch. 7-9 ask how new theories in mathematical physics were received in the existing mechanisms at Cambridge [late 19C to 1920s]
Useful book reviews (include link / DOI if possible) and key points from these: Elizabeth Garber, “Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics,” Physics Today 57, no. 9 (September 1, 2004): 58–58, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1809094.
- Garber notes that Warwick's account is both revisionist of an image of people like Einstein as lone geniuses and is an important reminder of the importance of teaching for creating new research fields. She sees both historians and physicists as the audience for the book
David Kaiser, “Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics (Review),” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35, no. 4 (2005): 644–45. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/180209.
- Kaiser's review praises Warwick's emphasis on the institutional culture of Cambridge and on how the pedagogical environment of the university conserved and fostered specific scientific theories and methods. He emphasises Warwick's limited institutional focus, but says that Warwick provides a “gold standard” for similar institutional histories
Key points or interventions or sub-arguments by chapter:
1 Writing a Pedagogical History of Mathematical Physics - Warwick works from the premise that theory and experiment, learning and knowing, are symmetrical, and are not a dichotomy
2 The Reform Coach - The increased activity of private teachers spurned on by the emergence of competitive, written exams increased the level of technical skills from late Georgian to early Victorian Cambridge
3 A Mathematical World on Paper
- Paper technologies in learning and examination which accompanied the shift from oral to written examination fundamentally changed the way mathematical physics was done
4 Exercising the Student Body
- Self-disciplining in a competitive environment fostered a culture of “manliness” that encompassed student life
5 Routh's Men
- Case study of face-to-face teaching by Edward Routh in mid to late 19C
6 Making Sense of Maxwell's Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism in Mid-Victorian Cambridge
- Case study in the reception and propagation of a new theory
7 Joseph Larmor, the Electronic Theory of Matter, and the Principle of Relativity
- Departs from the previous chapters by considering the reception of non-Cambridge ideas within its pedagogical culture as it had formed by the 1870s; many theories in ch.7-9 require more technical knowledge from the reader - Persistence of ether-based matter theory into the 20C at Cambridge despite the existence of Einstein's alternative not a matter of dogmatism. Warwick provides a warning against asymmetrical true-vs-false dichotomy, but rather sees this as evidence of the stability of research systems and the inherently difficult process of establishing alternative approaches
8 Transforming the Field and 9 Through the Convex Looking Glass
- Einstein's incommensurable technology within the established Cambridge pedagogical geography
Epilogue