Reluctant heroine

the long version

The life story told in this book centers on the almost forty years of delay that preceded the publication, between 1954 and 1960, of the second five volumes of Le Systeme du Monde of Pierre Duhem (1861-1916). A genius in theoretical physics and in the philosophy of physics, Duhem became through that work, easily the most original scholarly achievement by a single author in modern times, the pioneering discoverer of the medieval origins of Newtonian science. Those second five volumes might still be in manuscript had it not been for the heroically persistent efforts of Helene (1891-1974), Duhem's only child. - Back cover.