This book is a full, long-term history of relativity thinking in physics, from Galileo's early reflections on the proper reference of mechanical motion to Einstein's exploitation of relativity principles in his theories of special and general relativity.

Olivier Darrigol studied physics at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, the history and philosophy of physics at the Sorbonne and at UC-Berkeley's Office for History of Science and Technology (OHST). He is the author of several books on the history of quantum physics, electrodynamics, hydrodynamics, and optics. He is currently a member of the SPHere research team at CNRS/Paris 7, and a Research Associate at UC-Berkeley's OHST.

• 1: Rethinking motion in the seventeenth century


• 2: Deriving Newton's second law from relativity principles


• 3: The space-time-inertia tangle


• 4: The optics of moving bodies


• 5: The electrodynamics of moving bodies


• 6: Poincaré's relativity theory


• 7: The relativity theory of Einstein, Minkowski, and Laue


• 8: From Riemann to Ricci


• 9: Mostly Einstein: To general relativity


• 10: Mesh and measure in early general relativity


• 11: Epilogue