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Book review of Serving the Reich: the struggle for the soul of physics under Hitler by Philip Ball

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Lettera Matematica

Abstract

The paper is a review of Philip Ball’s book, dealing with the ethical dilemmas facing German scientists during Hitler’s regime, focused on three leading figures of German physics: Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg and Peter Debye. The author analyses the different ways in which the three scientists navigated through the obligations imposed by a totalitarian regime, while attempting at the same time to save the soul of their science—and their own.

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References

  1. Ball, P.: Serving the Reich: the struggle for the soul of physics under Hitler. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (2014)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Fisica, Università La Sapienza, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Giovanni Battimelli

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  1. Giovanni Battimelli
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Correspondence to Giovanni Battimelli.

Additional information

The present review refers to the Italian edition of this book. The original English text was published by University of Chicago Press, 2014 [1]. The Italian edition, with a translation by Daniele A. Gewurz, was published by Einaudi in 2015.

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Battimelli, G. Book review of Serving the Reich: the struggle for the soul of physics under Hitler by Philip Ball. Lett Mat Int 4, 173–176 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40329-016-0142-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40329-016-0142-4

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