"A colorful and readable account of the earliest applications of the diagrammatic technique."

Eugen Merzbacher | Physics Today

"This is a rich and original contribution to the expanding historical scholarship on the development of scientific tools and practices. Kaiser is one of the few historians to deal with the conceptual equipment of science as a kind of malleable paper tool, showing how Feynman diagrams were refracted through local environments and ultimately transformed. In all, a dazzling piece of work."-Daniel J. Kevles, Yale University

Daniel J. Kevles, Yale University

“Only a few people have the talent to write the history of theoretical physics. Only one or two can conceptualize and explain the elaboration of theory as a practical activity, which, like fine art, has its own competing traditions and conventions of representation.  David Kaiser accomplishes all this and backs it up with a level of detailed scholarship that makes it totally convincing.”

Harry Collins, Cardiff University

“This book is a double delight. It is the best example so far of a new way of doing the history of science, not as an account of evolving theories, experiments, and instruments, but of diagrams. It is a story of how a generation of physicists came to think for themselves and to talk to others in a new way. It takes you inside their minds and their seminars. It is also a wonderful way to learn how Feynman diagrams work and what they mean—in effect, a super do-it-yourself manual.”

Ian Hacking, Collège de France, Paris

"This is surely the definitive study of one of the great ubiquitous tools of modern quantum field theory."

A. I. Solomon | Contemporary Physics

“Intellectual tools can have profound impacts. Feynman diagrams have greatly improved how theoretical physicists think and, consequently, our understanding of nature. Drawing Theories Apart provides an informative description of how their influence came about.”

Gordon Kane | Science

"This is a fascinating book., if you are interested in the history, sociology and people of physics. It should be in every physics library."

Bruce H.J. McKellar | Australian Physics

"Kaiser is prodigiously talented in telling the adventure of modern theoretical physics: the richness of the book may impress even the most demanding historians and physicists. Physicists will probably be surprised to learn of so many varieties of Feynman diagrams. Historians will be delighted with the originality of the approach. . . . Everybody will be enchanted by the style of the book: even when (very) difficult physics is presented, it is never boring; it is always luminous and exciting."

Anouk Barberousse | International Studies in the Philsophy of Science

"A colorful and readable account of the earliest applications of the diagrammatic technique. . . . The book comes equipped with a formidable ancillary apparatus of footnotes and appendices and a massive bibliography that alone is worth the price."

Eugen Merzbacher | Physics

"A rich, original and most recommendable contribution to the history of modern science. It skilfully integrates social history with conceptual history, a technical mastery of Feynman diagrams with a broad and novel perspective of the historicity of the diagrams. . . . Drawing Theories Apart will surely be studied by historians, sociologists and philosophers of physics. . . . It has much to offer also to readers with no background in physics."

British Journal of the History of Science

"A stimulating and readable book that is also accessible to a wider audience. . . . The book is a valuable contribution to the history and philosophy of physics."

Adrian Wuethrich | Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics

"Kaiserer’s masterly written book provides a readable account of the role of Feynman’s intuitive tools for today’s physics."

Gert Roepstorff | Zentralblatt Math