Continuum mechanics through the twentieth century: a concise historical perspective

Abstract

This overview of the development of continuum mechanics throughout the twentieth century is unique and ambitious. Utilizing a historical perspective, it combines an exposition on the technical progress made in the field and a marked interest in the role played by remarkable individuals and scientific schools and institutions on a rapidly evolving social background. It underlines the newly raised technical questions and their answers, and the ongoing reflections on the bases of continuum mechanics associated, or in competition, with other branches of the physical sciences, including thermodynam. The Land Clearers and the "Classics" -- Transition to the 20th Century -- Rheology and Nonlinear Elasticity -- The American Society of Mechanical Engineers Spirit -- Axiomatization and Thermo-Mechanics -- The British School of Elasticity, Plasticity and Defects: Applied Mathematics -- The French Masters -- The Polish Strength -- German Revival in Continuum Mechanics After WWII -- European Miscellanei and Asia -- The Soviet and Russian Schools -- Continuum Mechanics and Electromagnetism -- Generalized Continuum Mechanics: Various Paths -- Configurational Mechanics -- Relativistic Continuum Mechanics: A 20th Century Adventure -- Epilogue.