Panofsky on Physics, Politics, and Peace

This volume contains an "unsystematic account" of my past work; it is not intended to be an autobiography in the conventional meaning of the term. It is not even remotely a scholarly description of the momentous devel- ments in which I was able to participate; rather it is a recital of "memorable" episodes, borrowing from the "compulsory preface" of a facetious British 1 history: "History is not what you thought. It is what you can remember. " Thus this volume suffers from many "sins of omission," including full att- bution of deserved credits, but, it is hoped, only few "sins of commission. " The author is greatly indebted to his colleagues and his wife, Adele, who kindly reviewed many segments of the manuscript describing shared expe- ences. They are Sidney Drell, Greg Loew, Ed Lofgren, Harvey Lynch, Richard B. Neal, Richard Panofsky, and Burt Richter. But the author, ne- less to say, is responsible for any errors. Because of the multitude of topics into which I was drawn concurrently, a strictly chronological account would prove unreadable. Accordingly the book is divided into chapters, each of which covers a limited period of engagement in a coherent subject matter; an approach clearly again unsystematic but hopefully more conducive to conveying the substance of the work. This account does not include a description of my family life.

School Time in Germany. - Transition to the United States and Undergraduate Life at Princeton University. - Graduate Study and War Work at Caltech. - Work at the University of California Radiation Laboratory. - Military Work at Berkeley and the Loyalty Oath. - Beginnings at Stanford. - Research and Teaching Before SLAC. - Science Advising and Arms Control: The Beginnings. - Establishing SLAC. - Building a Laboratory. - Physics and the Cold War. - Student Unrest at Stanford. - Fixed Target Research at SLAC. - New Facilities Colliding Beams. - International High Energy Physics. - Advances in Accelerator-Based High-Energy Physics. - Science and Politics After Retirement.