Editors Laurie Brown‎,‎ Max Dresden and Lillian Hoddeson have assembled a prestigious group of physicists and historians of science to present a broadly balanced picture of this exciting scientific era that witnessed the coming of age of particle physics and its development into ‎'‎big science‎'‎‎.‎ The historical studies and analyses provided in the volume are unique in their scope and level of detail‎.‎ Major topics and developments addressed include the important experiments and their theoretical explanations‎,‎ the design and construction of scientific instruments and the establishment of major research centres ‎- especially the national laboratories that played a key role in the transformation of particle physics into ‎'‎big science‎'‎‎.‎ These essays also range from sociological analyses of the particle physics subculture and the political aspects of research funding to discussions of symmetry and axiomatic field theory‎.‎