Abstract:
Louis de Broglie received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1929 following experimental
confirmation of his theory of the wave properties of the electron. De Broglie was an
anomaly among twentieth-century physicists: he was a prince by birth who would become
the seventh duc de Broglie. What did it mean to be an aristocrat in an age of science? This
essay explores aristocratic culture in France in the early twentieth century and examines
the family life, education, scientific practices, and social values of Louis de Broglie, his
brother Maurice, who was a distinguished experimental physicist, and their sister Pauline,
who became a well-known novelist and literary scholar after her scientific interests were
discouraged.
