This is the first book-length treatment of the history of attempts to bring quantum mechanics and gravitation together. It goes beyond a mere technical examination of the problems, by also looking at social and cultural factors involved in the changing fortunes of the field.

• 1: On Writing a History of Quantum Gravity


• 2: The Problem of Quantum Gravity


• 3: 'Prehistoric' Quantum Gravity


• 4: The Shock of the New


• 5: Just Another Field?


• 6: Forming the Canon


• 7: Quantum Gravity as a Regulator and Resource


• 8: Geon Wheeler


• 9: Institutionalizing Quantum Gravitational Research


• 10: Quantum Gravity on the Rise

Dean Rickles received his PhD from the University of Leeds in 2004, under the supervision of Steven French, with a thesis on conceptual issues in quantum gravity. He took up a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Calgary in 2005 (split between health sciences and philosophy), on the application of complex systems theory to population health. He joined HPS at the University of Sydney in 2007, receiving a five year ARC Australian Research Fellowship in 2008 and then a four year ARC Future Fellowship in 2014. He is now Professor of History and Philosophy of Modern Physics at the University of Sydney, where he also co-directs the Centre for Time.