In this book, Mary Jo Nye traces the social and intellectual history of the physical sciences from the early nineteenth century to the beginning of the Second World War.

Nye examines the sweeping transformation of scientific institutions and professions during the period and the groundbreaking experiments and scientific investigations that fueled that change, from the earliest investigations of molecular chemistry and field dynamics to the revolutionary breakthroughs of quantum mechanics, relativity theory, and nuclear science. Nye intersperses the narrative of these developments with profiles of key figures of modern science, from Dalton to Pasteur to Einstein to Bohr.

Notable features of the book include an insightful analysis of the parallel trajectories of modern chemistry and physics and the work of scientists - such as John Dalton, Michael Faraday, Hermann von Helmholtz, Marie Curie, Ernest Rutherford, Dorothy Hodgkin, and Linus Pauling - who played prominent roles in the development of both disciplines.