Einstein's Relativity in Great Britain: From Eddington to Hawking and Penrose. a Tale of Physicists, Astronomers, Mathematicians and Philosophers

Soon after their publication (1905, 1915), Einstein's special and general theories of relativity received attention by a wide variety of British scholars (astronomers, physicists, mathematicians and philosophers). That reaction varied from deep acceptance (as was the case of Arthur Eddington) to straightforward opposition. This book analyzes those reactions, which involved a large number of important scientists as well as philosophers, like Bertrand Russell or Alfred N. Whitehead. The study will cover from the 1910s till the 1960s, when the work of a group of relativists centered in London and Oxford (Penrose), Cambridge (Sciama and Hawking) as well as the Bondi's group at King's College London, who finally introduced a new, global approach to general relativity.