Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, located in the western suburbs of Chicago, has stood at the frontier of high-energy physics for forty years. "Fermilab "is the first history of this laboratory and of its powerful accelerators told from the point of view of the people who built and used them for scientific discovery.

Focusing on the first two decades of research at Fermilab, during the tenure of the laboratory s charismatic first two directors, Robert R. Wilson and Leon M. Lederman, the book traces the rise of what they call megascience, the collaborative struggle to conduct...