Constructing Quarks: A Sociological History of Particle Physics

Widely regarded as a classic in its field, Constructing Quarks recounts the history of the post-war conceptual development of elementary-particle physics. Inviting a reappraisal of the status of scientific knowledge, Andrew Pickering suggests that scientists are not mere passive observers and reporters of nature. Rather they are social beings as well as active constructors of natural phenomena who engage in both experimental and theoretical practice. “A prodigious piece of scholarship that I can heartily recommend.”-Michael Riordan, New Scientist “An admirable history. . . . Detailed and so accurate.”-Hugh N. Pendleton, Physics Today