Mehra J. Einstein, Hilbert, and the theory of gravitation: historical origins of general relativity theory

Reidel, 1974. — 95 p.General relativity theory, the modern theory of gravitation, more than any other theory in physics, is connected with the name of a single personality - that of Albert Einstein. P. A. M. Dirac has called it 'probably the greatest scientific discovery that ever was made'.
Contrary to the lore which has become widespread even among 'general relativists', Einstein did not develop his ideas on gravitation in isolation or in a vacuum of response from eminent physicists. As Jagdish Mehra shows in this essay, Einstein had the full benefit of the cut and thrust of scientific discussion with some of the first rate minds in the development of his general relativity theory. Indeed, there were times when lost debates spurred him on to greater effort.
Simultaneously with Einstein, and independently of him - and, in fact, a few days before Einstein - David Hilbert, the great mathematician, presented the final form of the field equations of gravitation to the Gottingen Academy of Sciences. Hilbert's axiomatic formulation of the foundations of physics sought to unify gravitation and electromagnetism in a single mathematical scheme before such a program was pursued by Hermann Weyl and later on by Einstein himself.
In this remarkable study Jagdish Mehra relates the intellectual history of the fascinating period from 1907 to 1919 when the foundations of the modern theory of gravitation were laid. It is the story of two intellectual giants of the twentieth century, and it throws new light on their scientific temperaments and personalities: Albert Einstein, the successor of Newton; and David Hilbert, the inheritor of the great Gottingen mathematical tradition of Gauss and Riemaim. It is an evocation of scientific creativity at its best.
Einstein, Hilbert, and the Theory of Gravitation is an important chapter of intellectual scientific history of physics in the twentieth century, and should appeal to all physicists, mathematicians, and historians and philosophers of science.