Why study Einstein’s relativity from a cultural point of view—the theory as well as the universal consensus it receives? From 1919 a theory that is almost impossible to make understandable to those who are not specialists enjoys generalized consensus among specialists and a popularity by the public of the whole world which has remained unchanged until the present. Ernst Gehrcke was the first to think that it was necessary to study relativity from a cultural point of view, and to attempt this.

Science at the Crossroads was published by Herbert Dingle in 1972 at the end of a gruelling controversy with the English scientific world about the clock paradox in Einstein's special relativity. It is a seminal text, which allows us to understand and evaluate, with Cartesian clarity, the problem of that paradox. The essay contains a great wealth of philosophical and epistemological ideas and has a classic imprint, rich with sharp and clear distinctions, and very elegant in style.

Everyone knows that Einstein's special relativity is a theory of time and space measurements, no longer considered absolute. But many who have tried to study it have not been able to understand it: yet it is enough to know what speed and square root are. This book, written for beginners and for perplexed who have tried the study of relativity without success, leads its readers to understand this founding idea of twentieth century culture and to judge it with their own intelligence.