Quantum Drama appeared after the death of one of its authors, John Heilbron, in November 2023. Heilbron was a distinguished historian of physics and astronomy, widely recognized for his work on a range of topics, including early modern theories of electricity, the relationship between science and religion and the history of quantum physics, in which he masterfully captured the complex and often non-linear development of scientific ideas within their social and cultural contexts.

For Quantum Drama, Heilbron collaborated with science writer Jim Baggott to produce a wide-ranging history of quantum physics, with a focus on philosophical and foundational debates. The book traces the efforts to understand quantum phenomena from the very beginnings and up to the present: the book ends with the note that John F. Clauser, Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger finally received a Nobel Prize for their work on quantum entanglement in 2022, and a reflection on the questions that remain open.

The story of quantum physics is thus presented as ongoing, and at the same time its first narrations are themselves already part of this story. In its third act, the book briefly addresses the early historiography of quantum physics, and here Heilbron himself is mentioned as a historical actor, namely as a team member of the Sources for History of Quantum Physics project. Conducted between 1961 and 1964, this project aimed to gather and record information about the historical development of quantum physics while a large part of the first generation of quantum physicists was still alive. The project was led by Thomas Kuhn, with Paul Forman and John Heilbron as team members. It was an intensive undertaking. Between 1961 and 1964, they collected a substantial archive of manuscripts and correspondence and interviewed nearly one hundred physicists. The team spent a year in Copenhagen to work through the archive of Niels Bohr, who sadly died just a few weeks into their stay. Having been a part of this project, Heilbron was thus a pioneer of the history of quantum physics. ‘Heilbron remembers the excitement of the project, the lure of Copenhagen, the loyalty and erudition of [Leon] Rosenfeld, the quiet powerful personality of Bohr, the complacent manufacture of memories by [Werner] Heisenberg, the confident reserve of [Pascual] Jordan, and the impersonation of [J. Robert] Oppenheimer by Oppenheimer’ (p. 167).

Looking back, Heilbron seems to suggest that the historical account of quantum mechanics that emerged from the project was too strongly dominated by a Copenhagen perspective: ‘Like quantum physicists of the Copenhagen persuasion, but in their own slow way, historians have helped to shape the story much as Bohr would have wanted it told’ (pp. 167–8). Quantum Drama aims to provide a more balanced account: ‘It is a mistake, made in many accounts of the debate, academic, popular, past, and recent, to credit one side or the other with following the only true path. The motion was, and continues to be, necessarily zigzag, dialectical, reciprocal’ (p. 7).

The book’s title is inspired by an article by Bohr, in which he recounts his discussions with Albert Einstein about quantum mechanics, and writes, ‘At the next meeting with Einstein at the Solvay Conference in 1930, our discussions took quite a dramatic turn’ (cited on p. 88). The authors aim to highlight such dramatic turns in the debates surrounding quantum mechanics. The suggestion of a theatrical approach is strengthened by the book’s division into four ‘acts’. Unfortunately, the book does not fully live up to its title. Although it includes some descriptions of the personal characters of key figures and mentions moments of conflict and disagreement, these depictions tend to be brief and remain relatively dry, and the drama of these debates, turns and zigzags never quite comes alive.

The book offers a detailed and thorough account of the history and foundational controversies of quantum mechanics. However, its broad scope and density mean that many topics are introduced but not substantially developed. Many things are merely hinted at in a way that is probably not very telling for a reader with limited background knowledge. For this reason, the book probably works better as a survey for readers who are already familiar with the subject than as an accessible introduction. The book is sprinkled with humorous asides and is at times quite opinionated.