An exploration of physics in a somewhat unusual mode, by way of how it shimmies into language, defining which particular features of that world can become thinkable at all.

Inventing Reality traces the history of modern physics through concepts such as force, fields, relativity, quantum mechanics and particle physics, asking how scientific vocabularies emerge, harden and then sometimes have to be broken apart when the phenomena change, stop or become replaced. 

It essentially toys the line between discovery and invention, looking at how physicists construct mathematical and conceptual systems, but what they make is continually constrained by a world capable of refusing them. His account of particle accelerators is especially good on this tension — collisions do not merely reveal pre-existing pieces of matter but can generate new particles from energy, muddying any easy distinction between finding something and producing the conditions under which it appears.

It is accessible without being simplistic, and a particularly good crossover book for readers interested in physics, epistemology, language and the philosophy of science. Gregory discusses figures including Einstein, Rutherford, Bohr and Weinberg. The original edition appeared in 1988; this Wiley Science Editions paperback followed in 1990. 

John Wiley & Sons / Wiley Science Editions, New York, 1990. First paperback edition, second printing. Paperback. Light shelf wear and minor handling to covers; internally clean and unmarked, binding firm. Very good condition.