The Autobiography of Robert A. Millikan

“The Autobiography of Robert A. Millikan is one of the most outstanding works of its kind done by an American man of science. The treatment is lucid and brings out in clear relief not only the activities of the man himself but of those, and there are many, with whom he has associated and collaborated in the fields of teaching, research, and administration. The autobiography is that of a dynamic personality associated with patience, persistence and enthusiasm. The treatment is free from egotism and refreshingly frank and forthright.” — B. J. Spence, American Journal of Physics


“Robert Andrews Millikan is one of the most distinguished physicists in the world and his autobiography will interest not only the entire scientific world, but the reading public at large... It is refreshing and helpful for younger [scientific] workers to read... that only after many discouraging attempts did [Millikan’s] great researches on the determination of the electronic charge and his proof of the Einstein photoelectric law emerge.” — Robert S. Shankland, Physics Today


“It is seldom that a man is so successful in getting his personality into his own writing about himself... The book is much more than the record of the life of one man,... it is a history of the physics of his time, and as such will find its place among the other histories of the most memorable decades that physics has yet experienced.” — P. W. Bridgman, Science


“[A] history of twentieth-century physics as viewed through the eyes of one of its chief participants... The book is a necessity in the education of our younger physicists. It is very valuable to all those who have any part in public affairs.” — Dinsmore Alter, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific


“Physicists everywhere will find Millikan’s autobiography a narrative of absorbing interest.” — J. G. Wilson, Science Progress


“An interesting account of a busy scientist’s career and absorbing descriptions of major advances of 20th-century physics to which Millikan made essential contributions. A rare history of a civilized, happy man.” — Scientific American


“Interestingly written and [...] not devoid of flashes of humor.” — Paul R. Heyl, The Scientific Monthly