8 Reviews
another biography
by Ronnell, Independence, Missouri on 04-08-2008
Mr Isaacson consulted two dozen scientific people, including a Nobelist, university professors of physics, archivists, and two high school physics teachers to write this book. He also had access to the Einstein papers just released and to the Einstein Institute at the Hebrew University in Jeruselam. With all these sources he wrote a more rounded bio of Einstein and adds to the list of many good bios on the man.
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Great biography
by kjw, Provo, Utah on 04-06-2010
This is an excellent biography. The book has a great mix of Einstein's scientific accomplishments along with details of his life. This is the first book I have read on Einstein and I was fascinated by his life story. If all you know about Einstein is E=MC2, you should read this book to find out more about this very interesting man.
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Details
| Call number | |
| Description |
xxii, 675 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
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| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. 553-564) and index.
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| Contents |
The light-beam rider -- Childhood, 1879-1896 -- The Zurich Polytechnic, 1896-1900 -- The lovers, 1900-1904 -- The miracle year: quanta and molecules, 1905 -- Special relativity, 1905 -- The happiest thought, 1906-1909 -- The wandering professor, 1909-1914 -- General relativity, 1911-1915 -- Divorce, 1916-1919 -- Einstein's universe, 1916-1919 -- Fame, 1919 -- The wandering Zionist, 1920-1921 -- Nobel laureate, 1921-1927 -- Unified field theories, 1923-1931 -- Turning fifty, 1929-1931 -- Einstein's God -- The refugee, 1932-1933 -- America, 1933-1939 -- Quantum entanglement, 1935 -- The bomb, 1939-1945 -- One-worlder, 1945-1948 -- Landmark, 1948-1953 -- Red scare, 1951-1954 -- The end, 1955 -- Epilogue: Einstein's brain and Einstein's mind.
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| Summary |
The first full biography of Albert Einstein since all of his papers have become available shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. Biographer Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk--a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn't get a teaching job or a doctorate--became the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe. His success came from questioning conventional wisdom and marveling at mysteries that struck others as mundane. This led him to embrace a morality and politics based on respect for free minds, free spirits, and free individuals. These traits are just as vital for this new century of globalization, in which our success will depend on our creativity, as they were for the beginning of the last century, when Einstein helped usher in the modern age.--From publisher description.
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| Publication Detail |
New York : Simon & Schuster, ©2007.
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| Subject | |
| ISBN |
9780743264730
0743264738
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