MIT STS.042J: Einstein, Oppenheimer, Feynman
The complete 25-lecture MIT STS.042J course (Fall 2020), taught by Prof. David Kaiser. A fascinating exploration of 20th-century physics through the lives and work of its greatest figures — from Maxwell and the ether through Einstein, the quantum revolution, the Manhattan Project, Feynman, and on to string theory and the multiverse.
Lecture 1: Introduction to Physics in the 20th Century
Lecture 2: Faraday, Thomson, and Maxwell: Lines of Force in the Ether
Lecture 3: Worldviews, Wranglers, and the Making of Theoretical Physicists
Lecture 4: Waves in the Ether
About This Course
MIT STS.042J (Science, Technology, and Society) examines the history of physics in the 20th century not just as a sequence of discoveries, but as a deeply human enterprise shaped by politics, war, culture, and philosophy. Prof. David Kaiser is one of the world's leading historians of modern physics, and these lectures reflect decades of scholarship on how physics and society have shaped each other.
All content is publicly available via MIT OpenCourseWare. Lectures are organized into 6 thematic chapters spanning from classical field theory through modern cosmology and string theory.