Olivier Darrigol is Research Director at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, where he has been a researcher since 1983. He won the Marc-Auguste Pictet prize of the Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Genève in 2000 and the Grammaticakis-Neumann prize of the French Academy of Sciences in 2004.

In this impressive new book Olivier Darrigol, Director of Research at the eminent Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, charts the complex and by no means linear development of optical theories from the pre-Socratics to just before the advent of quantum theory. Darrigol is a sure-footed guide as he displays a close acquaintance with the sources and supplies helpful quotations and an abundance of visual illustrations. ... He has written an impressive account of the history of optics and one that deserves to be read both by historians of science and by practicing physicists.

• 1. From the Greeks to Kepler ; 2. Mechanical medium theories of the seventeenth century ; 3. Newton's optics ; 4. The eighteenth century ; 5. Interference, polarization, and waves in the early nineteenth century ; 6. Ether and matter ; 7. Waves and rays

Olivier Darrigol is Research Director at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, where he has been a researcher since 1983. He won the Marc-Auguste Pictet prize of the Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Genève in 2000 and the Grammaticakis-Neumann prize of the French Academy of Sciences in 2004.

In this impressive new book Olivier Darrigol, Director of Research at the eminent Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, charts the complex and by no means linear development of optical theories from the pre-Socratics to just before the advent of quantum theory. Darrigol is a sure-footed guide as he displays a close acquaintance with the sources and supplies helpful quotations and an abundance of visual illustrations. ... He has written an impressive account of the history of optics and one that deserves to be read both by historians of science and by practicing physicists.

• 1. From the Greeks to Kepler ; 2. Mechanical medium theories of the seventeenth century ; 3. Newton's optics ; 4. The eighteenth century ; 5. Interference, polarization, and waves in the early nineteenth century ; 6. Ether and matter ; 7. Waves and rays

Olivier Darrigol is Research Director at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, where he has been a researcher since 1983. He won the Marc-Auguste Pictet prize of the Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Genève in 2000 and the Grammaticakis-Neumann prize of the French Academy of Sciences in 2004.

In this impressive new book Olivier Darrigol, Director of Research at the eminent Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, charts the complex and by no means linear development of optical theories from the pre-Socratics to just before the advent of quantum theory. Darrigol is a sure-footed guide as he displays a close acquaintance with the sources and supplies helpful quotations and an abundance of visual illustrations. ... He has written an impressive account of the history of optics and one that deserves to be read both by historians of science and by practicing physicists.

• 1. From the Greeks to Kepler ; 2. Mechanical medium theories of the seventeenth century ; 3. Newton's optics ; 4. The eighteenth century ; 5. Interference, polarization, and waves in the early nineteenth century ; 6. Ether and matter ; 7. Waves and rays