Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field

Nancy Forbes and Basil Mahon tell how two nineteenth-century scientists, Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell, discovered the electromagnetic field and overturned the mechanical worldview that had prevailed since Newton. The narrative mixes biography of both men, born forty years apart, with clear explanations of their science. Despite class prejudice and little mathematical training, the self-taught Faraday became known for experimental observation and scientific imagination. Maxwell, a leading mathematical physicist, put Faraday's ideas into mathematical language, creating field theory, a single framework for light, magnetism and electricity. The authors link this work to later technology such as electric power generation. Both authors are experienced science writers whose expertise lies in physics and engineering.

Charlie Munger said it was the best book of its kind he had read, a blend of scientific biography and physics explanation, and remarked that neither author is a physicist.