A detailed account of the life and work of an influential theoretical physicist.

Fritz London was one of the twentieth century's key figures in the development of theoretical physics. A quiet and self-effacing man, he was one of the founders of quantum chemistry, and was the first to give a phenomenological explanation of superconductivity. This thoroughly researched biography gives a detailed account of London's life and work in Munich, Berlin, Oxford, Paris, and finally in the United States. Covering a fascinating period in the development of theoretical physics, and containing an appraisal of London's work by the late John Bardeen, this book will be of great interest to physicists, chemists, and to anyone interested in the history of science.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Part I. From Philosophy to Physics: The years that left nothing unaffected
1. The appeal of ideas
2. Goethe as a scientist
3. How absolute is our knowledge?
4. How do we come to know things?
5. London's teachers in philosophy
6. Husserl's teachings
7. Expectations of things to come
8. The thesis in philosophy
9. Tolman's principle of similitude
10. The necessary clarifications
11. Work on quantum theory
12. Transformation theory
13. Unsuccessful attempts at unification
Part II. The Years in Berlin and the Beginnings of Quantum Chemistry: The mysterious bond
14. London in Zurich
15. Binding forces
16. The Pauli principle
17. Reactions to the Heitler-London paper
18. Polyelectronic molecules and the application of group theory to problems of chemical valence
19. Chemists as physicists?
20. London's first contacts in Berlin
21. Marriage
22. Job offers
23. Intermolecular forces
24. The book which could not be written
25. Leningrad and Rome
26. Difficulties with group theory
27. Linus Pauling's resonance structures
28. Robert Mulliken's molecular orbitals
Part III. Oxford and Superconductivity: The rise of the Nazis
29. Going to Oxford
30. Lindemann, Simon and Heinz London
31. Electricity in the very cold
32. The end of old certainties
33. The thermodynamic treatment
34. The theory of Fritz and Heinz London
35. Initial reactions by von Laue
36. The discussion at the Royal Society
37. Termination of the ICI fellowship
Part IV. Paris and Superfluidity: The Front Populaire
38. The article in Nature 1937 and 'Nouvelle Conception'
39. Laue again
40. The structure of solid helium
41. The peculiar properties of helium
42. Bose-Einstein condensation
43. The note in Nature
44. The two-fluid model
45. The trip to Jerusalem
46. Leaving again
47. The observer in quantum mechanics
Part V. United States and the Typing up of Loose Ends: Duke University, North Carolina
48. The Soviet Union, Kapitza and Landau
49. The war years
50. The 1946 Cambridge Conference
Unsettled and unsettling issues in superfluidity and superconductivity
51. Heisenberg's theory and London's program for a microscopic theory
52. More problems with Laue
Hopeful signs from helium-3
53. 'Second sound' at very low temperatures
54. Writing Superfluids
55. The trip to Europe
56. Some developments in superconductivity
57. An ugly finale
58. Could Landau be right?
59. The worrisome realities of the post-war era
60. The second volume of Superfluids
61. William Fairbank
62. Further developments
63. The Lorentz Model
64. Consultantship at Los Alamos and the interview for security clearance
65. The last days
List of publications of Fritz London
Bibliography.