On the back of this book it says
>By the year 1900, most physicists seemed to be encompassed in the two great theories of Newtonian mechanics and Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism. Unfortunately there were inconsistencies between the two theories that seemed irreconcilable. Although many physicists struggled with the problem, it took the genius of Einstein to see that the inconsistencies were concerned not merely with mechanics and electromagnetism, but with our most elementary ideas of space and time. In the special theory of relativity, Einstein resolved these difficulties and profoundly altered our conception of the physical universe.
What inconsistences were there between Newtonian mechanics and Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism? Can someone explain in an academic manner that a layman or beginner can understand?