"Engrossing . . . Leave[s] us with a richer picture of physics as a lived activity." — Los Angeles Review of BooksIn Quantum Legacies, David Kaiser introduces readers to iconic episodes in physicists' still-unfolding quest to understand space, time, and matter at their most fundamental. In a series of vibrant essays, Kaiser takes us inside moments of discovery and debate among the great minds of the era—Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Stephen H...

The surprising story of eccentric young scientists who stood up to convention—and changed the face of modern physicsIn the 1970s, amid severe cutbacks in physics funding, a small group of underemployed physicists in Berkeley decided to throw off the constraints of academia and explore the wilder side of science. Dubbing themselves the “Fundamental Fysiks Group,” they pursued a freewheeling, speculative approach to physics. Some dabbled with LSD while conducting experiments. They st...

Neither a random event nor the act of a lone madman—the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was an appalling and grisly conspiracy. This is the unvarnished story.With deft investigative skill, David Kaiser shows that the events of November 22, 1963, cannot be understood without fully grasping the two larger stories of which they were a part: the U.S. government’s campaign against organized crime, which began in the late 1950s and accelerated dramatically under Rober...

While Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first hundred days may be the most celebrated period of his presidency, the months before the attack on Pearl Harbor proved the most critical. Beginning as early as 1939 when Germany first attacked Poland, Roosevelt skillfully navigated a host of challenges -- a reluctant population, an unprepared military, and disagreements within his cabinet -- to prepare the country for its inevitable confrontation with the Axis.In No End Save Victory, ...

David Kaiser began his serious study of history as a Harvard undergraduate in the fall of 1965 and began his professional career as a junior faculty member in 1976. During the next 37 years, he taught dozens of courses, wrote seven books, changed the lives of many students, and carefully observed the changes in the four institutions in which he taught, as well as in the historical profession, the humanities, and higher education more generally. A Life in History tells this compell...

Ed’s entire career had been focused on products of value which didn’t change regardless who produced it and the quality would remain the same regardless whether grown or mined. He was well aware of the effects of supply and demand on commodities and now the door was wide open to apply his experience as an investor in real estate. 

States of the Union uses State of the Union addresses and other presidential addresses to tell the story of the political history of the United States from Washington's inauguration in 1789 through 2023. The addresses provide a remarkable record of how the country saw itself, what problems required solutions--both at home and in the larger world--what solutions presidents proposed, and what was actually accomplished. Meanwhile, election results register the verdicts of the America...

In the mid-1960s, when pro football eclipsed baseball as America's leading spectator sport, the NFL had the most exciting season in its history. The Eastern Conference Cleveland Browns were the champions in 1965 yet most of the action was in the Western Conference, where the reigning Baltimore Colts contended with the formidable Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears. All three teams played two games apiece against the Detroit Lions, a power earlier in the decade, and the Minnesota Vikings an...

Recent advances in baseball statistical analysis have made it possible to assess the totality of contribution each player makes to team success or failure. Using the metric Wins Above Average (WAA)--the number of wins that the 2016 Red Sox, for example, added because they had Mookie Betts in right field, instead of an average player--the author undertakes a fascinating review of major league baseball from 1901 through 2017. The great teams are analyzed, underscoring why they were successfu...

The life and work of Freeman Dyson—renowned scientist, visionary, and iconoclast—and his particular way of thinking about deep questions.Freeman Dyson (1923–2020)—renowned scientist, visionary, and iconoclast—helped invent modern physics. Not bound by disciplinary divisions, he went on to explore foundational topics in mathematics, astrophysics, and the origin of life. General readers were introduced to Dyson’s roving mind and heterodox approach in his 1979 book

A physicist's efforts to understand the enigma that is quantum mechanics."One of the finest books I have read on quantum mechanics: lucid and careful, but also entertaining, honest, and generous."—Phillip Ball, author of Beyond WeirdAstrophysicist George Greenstein has been both fascinated and confused by quantum mechanics for his entire career. In this book, he describes, engagingly and accessibly, his efforts to understand the en...

Did the Woodstock generation reject science—or re-create it? An "enthralling" study of a unique period in scientific history ( New Scientist).Our general image of the youth of the late 1960s and early 1970s is one of hostility to things like missiles and mainframes and plastics—and an enthusiasm for alternative spirituality and getting "back to nature." But this enlightening collection reveals that the stereotype is overly simplistic. In fact, there were d...