Abstract
This article contributes to a global history of relativity, by exploring how Einstein's theory was appropriated in Belgium. This may sound like a contradiction in terms, yet the early-twentieth-century Belgian context, because of its cultural diversity and reflectiveness of global conditions (the principal example being the First World War), proves well-suited to expose transnational flows and patterns in the global history of relativity. The attempts of Belgian physicist Théophile de Donder to contribute to relativity physics during the 1910s and 1920s illustrate the role of the war in shaping the transnational networks through which relativity circulated. The local attitudes of conservative Belgian Catholic scientists and philosophers, who denied that relativity was philosophically significant, exemplify a global pattern: while critics of relativity feared to become marginalized by the scientific, political, and cultural revolutions that Einstein and his theory were taken to represent, supporters sympathized with these revolutions.
Highlights
In their 2014 The History Manifesto, historians Jo Guldi and David Armitage argue that the focus of historical scholarship has become increasingly narrow
De Donder’s isolated attempts, and the history of relativity in Belgium at large was intimately linked to the First World War
By studying the different ways in which relativity was appropriated in Belgium, I have added yet another title to the already long list of nationally focused case studies
Summary
In their 2014 The History Manifesto, historians Jo Guldi and David Armitage argue that the focus of historical scholarship has become increasingly narrow. In 1916, in an article published in the journal of the Dutch Academy of Sciences, De Donder announced that he had successfully generalized Einstein’s theory of special relativity by deriving a covariant set of gravitational field equations, a result which Einstein himself had been seeking for years and had attained in 1915 (De Donder 1916). The case of De Donder has already exemplified how the global condition of the First World War shaped (and impeded) the appropriation of relativity physics on a local scale. De Donder’s isolated attempts, and the history of relativity in Belgium at large was intimately linked to the First World War. In particular, Einstein’s German nationality became a major factor in post-war Belgium, both in public and scientific spheres. As Belgian interest in relativity increased, its association with modernism became increasingly significant
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