Table of Contents

PART A: Preliminaries
1: Life and work: A sketch
2: Theories of heat: Some background
PART B: Exegesis
3: Constructing thermal equilibrium (1866-1871)
4: The Boltzmann equation and the H theorem (1872-1875)
5: The probabilistic turn (1876-1884)
6: The analogical turn (1884-1887)
7: Consolidation (1887-1895)
8: The critical turn (1895-1899)
9: Lectures on gas theory (1896-1898)
PART C: Synthetic Reflections
10: Boltzmann's theory

About the Author

Olivier Darrigol studied physics at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, the history and philosophy of physics at the Sorbonne and at UC-Berkeley's Office for History of Science and Technology (OHST). He is the author of several books on the history of quantum physics, electrodynamics, hydrodynamics, and optics. He is currently a member of the SPHere research team at CNRS/Paris 7, and a Research Associate at UC-Berkeley's OHST.

Reviews

The text is well written, clear and supported by black-and-white figures and historical footnotes. This book can be fully recommended to anyone with some background in mathematics and physics who is interested in the course of the discussion that led to modern statistical mechanics. It is also a good read for those interested in Boltzmann as a scientist and those who have a more general interest in the science of the period.
*Manuel Vogel, Contemporary Physics*