A Brief History of String Theory

Dean Rickles is associate professor of history and philosophy of science at the University of Sydney. He specialises in the history and philosophy of quantum gravity and has published extensively in this area. He has authored or edited several books including: The Structural Foundations of Quantum Gravity (coedited with S. French and J. Saatsi: Oxford University Press, 2006); Symmetry, Structure, and Spacetime (Elsevier, 2007); The Ashgate Companion to Contemporary Philosophy of Physics (Ashgate, 2008); and The Role of Gravitation in Physics: Report from the 1957 Chapel Hill Conference (Co-edited with Cecile DeWitt: Max Planck Research Library for the History and Development of Knowledge, 2011).

History and Mythology.- Part I: The (Very) Early Years: 1959-1973.- Particle Physics in the Sixties.- The Veneziano Model.- The Hadronic String.- Supersymmetric Strings and Field Theoretic Limits.- Part II: A Decade of Darkness: 1974-1984.- An Early Demise? Theoretical Exaptation in String Theory.- Turning Point(s).- Part III: String Theory Becomes Super: 1985-1995.- Superstring Theory and the Real World.- A 'Second Superstring Revolution' and the Future of String Theory.

"Certainly any historian wishing to deal with this subject matter in the future will take this pioneering work as a starting point. Indeed, the book offers a multitude of such starting points, offering a question worthy of a dissertation on almost every page. ... an indispensable compendium for anybody interested in tackling this difficult and important subject." (Alexander Blum, ISIS, Vol. 106 (4), December, 2015)

"This is a good textbook tracing the origin of string theory in physical scientific studies. ... This book will be of great value to physicists at all levels of training, including graduate students and postdocs. It is a milestone in historical research." (Joseph J. Grenier, Amazon.com, July, 2015)

"This is a worthwhile and enjoyable book, full of interesting details about the development of one of the main research areas of theoretical physics. It appears to be most useful to scientists educated in related fields, and I would even say that it should be a mandatory read for young colleagues entering research in string theory." (Wolfgang Lerche, CERN Courier, September, 2014)

"Amazing book! First book that covers the history of the String Theory. It is one of the best book published this year. I highly recommend it to you!" (Philosophy, Religion and Science Book Reviews, bookinspections.wordpress.com, May, 2014)

"While I've spent a lot of time in the past reading about much of this history, I learned a lot from the book, about string theory as well as other topics in particle physics that interacted with it. I'm strongly of the opinion that if you want to really understand a subject, you need to understand its history, so anyone who wants to really master string theory would do well to spend some time with this book."(Not Even Wrong, math.columbia.edu/~woit, March, 2014)

“Certainly any historian wishing to deal with this
subject matter in the future will take this pioneering work as a starting
point. Indeed, the book offers a multitude of such starting points, offering a
question worthy of a dissertation on almost every page. … an indispensable
compendium for anybody interested in tackling this difficult and important
subject.” (Alexander Blum, ISIS, Vol. 106 (4), December, 2015)“This is a good textbook tracing the origin of string theory in physical scientific studies. … This book will be of great value to physicists at all levels of training, including graduate students and postdocs. It is a milestone in historical research.” (Joseph J. Grenier, Amazon.com, July, 2015)“This is a worthwhile and enjoyable book, full of interesting details about the development of one of the main research areas of theoretical physics. It appears to be most useful to scientists educated in related fields, and I would even say that it should be a mandatory read for young colleagues entering research in string theory.” (Wolfgang Lerche, CERN Courier, September, 2014)“Amazing book! First book that covers the history of the String Theory. It is one of the best book published this year. I highly recommend it to you!” (Philosophy, Religion and Science Book Reviews, bookinspections.wordpress.com, May, 2014)“While I’ve spent a lot of time in the past reading about much of this history, I learned a lot from the book, about string theory as well as other topics in particle physics that interacted with it. I’m strongly of the opinion that if you want to really understand a subject, you need to understand its history, so anyone who wants to really master string theory would do well to spend some time with this book.”(Not Even Wrong, math.columbia.edu/~woit, March, 2014)