the rise of the wave theory of light: optical theory and experiment in the early nineteenth century

＂No one interested in the history of optics, the history of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century physics, or the general phenomenon of theory change in science can afford to ignore Jed Buchwald’s well-structured, highly detailed, and scrupulously researched book. . . . Buchwald’s analysis will surely constitute the essential starting point for further work on this important and hitherto relatively neglected episode of theory change.＂--John Worrall, Isis

Jed Z. Buchwald is associate professor in the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto. He is the author of ＂From Maxwell to Microphysics,＂ also published by the University of Chicago Press.