Faust in Copenhagen by Gino Segre

Subtitled "A Struggle for the Soul of Physics," this book humanizes physics and sets it into historical context in the early years of quantum mechanics. In 1932 prominent physicists Bohr, Heisenberg, Einstein, Ehrenfest, Dirac and others gathered in Copenhagen for a free form discussion of their work. This was an annual event for them and as part of it the men did a skit based on Goethe's Faust. They wrote it in rhyme and poked fun at their own personalities and work. Segre includes a lot of biographical information and stories about physics discoveries told in an easy-to-understand way. My only complaint is that it skips back and forth in time; I think the material could have been better arranged in either straight chronological order or physicist by physicist.