Intellectual Mastery of Nature. Theoretical Physics from Ohm to Einstein, Volume 2: The Now Mighty Theoretical Physics, 1870 to 1925

Winner of the 1987 Pfizer Award of the History of Science Society "A majestic study of a most important spoch of intellectual history."—Brian Pippard, Times Literary Supplement "The authors' use of archival sources hitherto almost untouched gives their story a startling vividness. These volumes are among the finest works produced by historians of physics."—Jed Z. Buchwald, Isis "The authors painstakingly reconstruct the minutiae of laboratory budgets, instrument collections, and student numbers; they disentangle the intrigues of faculty appointments and the professional values those appointments reflected; they explore collegial relationships among physicists; and they document the unending campaign of scientists to wring further support for physics from often reluctant ministries."—R. Steven Turner, Science "Superbly written and exhaustively researched."—Peter Harman, Nature
check out the 1-volume, abridged, revised & updated  re-edition
The Second Physicist: On the History of Theoretical Physics in Germany [ARCHIMEDES #48], Springer, 2017