Einstein, Oppenheimer, Feynman: Physics in the 20th Century
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this history of modern physics, tracing how the science and its practitioners changed across the twentieth century. The course moves from relativity and quantum mechanics through high-energy physics and cosmology, but its real focus is context: how physicists worked and what they meant to the societies around them in Imperial Britain, Nazi Germany, wartime America, and the Cold War United States. Readings and lecture notes cover figures like Einstein, Oppenheimer, and Feynman not just for their discoveries but for their institutional and political entanglements, from bomb projects to loyalty investigations. Materials include the full syllabus, assigned readings, and session-by-session notes as published by MIT, free to access with no certificate attached. It suits anyone wanting the science of the century tied to the labs, governments, and wars that shaped it.