At the time of its publication this classic text, co-written by the Nobel Laureate Max Born, represented the definitive account of the subject and in many ways it still does. The book begins with a general discussion of the statistical mechanics of ideal lattices, leading to the electric polarizability and to the scattering of light. It then provides detailed discussions of long lattice waves, thermal properties, and optical properties.

In this collection of informal reminiscences, first published in 1975, Max Born has written an extraordinarily vivid account of his life and work, originally intended for his family.

Ranging from his time at the University of Gottingen, where Born had his first real motivation for a professional career in science, to the period in Berlin as professor extraordinary, when he and his wife became close friends of Einstein, these anecdotes and memories chart the "heroic age of physics" from the perspective of one of its leading characters. In 1954 Born was awarded the Nobel Prize in...