Einstein, Poincaré and the Origins of Special Relativity

Going back over 60 years now, there has been extensive discussion of whether Poincare (and Lorentz) deserve credit for discovering special relativity. Two papers by Poincare translated in this book are cited to advance the case for giving Poincare precedence. This chapter considers the objectives set out by Poincare and Einstein at the beginning of their papers, looks at the beginning of the discussion, and concludes with a look at some recent work about the discussion.