There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.
(edit: looks like this question was based on a false impression of history, so nvm)
That Lord Kelvinapocryphal quote has always stuck out to me. I remember hearing from some other source that this was a general attitude at the time.
Does anyone have good book recommendations to get a feel for what the intellectual / scientific zeitgeist of this moment in history in Europe was like?
The quote is apocryphal. The reality was almost the exact opposite: Lord Kelvin was very concerned about two discrepancies in contemporary physics, the solutions of which required special relativity and quantum mechanics respectively.
Yikes, I fell for it. To your knowledge is there any period in the history of physics were prominent scholars seemed to think that most of the work was done?
I don't think such a period exists. The closest thing is modern times, when a lot of people think string theory will become the "theory of everything". Or maybe the times just before the gargantuan size of the string landscape was discovered. But I think that even the most optimistic string theorists, out of those that can be called prominent scholars, would say that a lot of work yet remains.
(edit: looks like this question was based on a false impression of history, so nvm)
That Lord Kelvin apocryphal quote has always stuck out to me. I remember hearing from some other source that this was a general attitude at the time.
Does anyone have good book recommendations to get a feel for what the intellectual / scientific zeitgeist of this moment in history in Europe was like?