Einstein: His Life and Universe

Walter Isaacson takes readers through the extraordinary life of the renowned physicist Albert Einstein. Isaacson's comprehensive biography not only captures the essence of Einstein's scientific contributions but also delves into the fascinating aspects of his personal life. Isaacson's meticulous research and engaging storytelling make this biography a captivating read. He masterfully presents Einstein's complex scientific theories in a way that is accessible to readers of all backgrounds. Whether it's relativity, quantum mechanics, or the photoelectric effect, Isaacson ensures that even the most intricate concepts are explained clearly and without unnecessary jargon. As a result, readers gain a deeper understanding of the revolutionary discoveries that perpetually changed our understanding of the universe. However, what truly sets this biography apart is Isaacson's exploration of Einstein's personal life. Delving into his family dynamics, relationships, and political and social activism, Isaacson provides readers with a well-rounded picture of the man behind the genius. By examining Einstein's struggles and successes, his controversies and ethical dilemmas, Isaacson humanizes the iconic figure, making him relatable and understandable. Furthermore, Isaacson's prose is engaging and fluid, making the biography accessible and enjoyable to read. He skillfully weaves together historical context, scientific explanations, and personal anecdotes, creating a narrative that is both informative and entertaining. Isaacson's admiration for Einstein shines through in his writing, but he remains objective and portrays the scientist honestly, highlighting both his strengths and flaws. One criticism of the book is that it occasionally delves too deeply into scientific explanations, which may not appeal to readers without a strong background in physics. However, Isaacson's ability to seamlessly transition between technical details and personal anecdotes largely compensates for this minor flaw. In conclusion, Einstein His Life And Universe is a compelling biography that provides a thorough understanding of Einstein's life, science, and impact on the world. Walter Isaacson's meticulous research, insightful analysis, and engaging storytelling make this book a must-read for anyone interested in the man behind the theory of relativity.

Unless I'm mistaken, Albert Einstein's last name freely translates from Geerman to the English words, One (eine) stein (stone). I have read seeveral bios on Einstein, all of them good. But by far, Walter Issacson's is the absolute best. He is one of those biographers who in the parlance of the old time grocer "gives good weeight", i.e.., good value every time. He traverses the very tricky netherland between the temptation to actually try to explain relativity (of course a thankless task) and give the lay reader at least aa sense of the majesty of Einstein's incredible feat of the millenium . At the same time he deals with great insight and wisdom with Einstein's complexpersonal journey, his emotional life, his stubborn clinging to the ever fading possibility of acheiving the discovery of a unified field theory, that keeps you reading. This is really a suberb, engaging work. Issacson's little touches of humor here and ther add immesuarablt to the enjoyment of the read. What is key overall I think is the intelligence and readability of this book. The author's long stint at Time magazine has served him well in learning about the economy of words and the compression of lots of insight into spiffy, keep em reading prose. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in what is clearly the man with one of the greatest minds in human history. Take Einstein, add Shakespeare and you have the Damon and Pythius of the modern world. My son has a friend who holds a PHD in Physics from Princeton. He sat me down several times patiently attempting to reduce relativity to terms I might have even the vaguest possibility to grasp. Unfortunely I stand still ignorant. But take heart. One of the funniest quotes in the book is one by founding president of Israel, Dr. Chaim Weitzman, a brilliant biochemist. Upon meeting Einstein he asked him to review relativity for him. They spent two hours in which Einstein patiently laid out the theory. At the end of the session a reporter came up to Weitzman and asked, "Well now Dr. Weitzman, what do you think of the theory of relativity?" Without missing a beat, Weitzman replied, "After three hours I am absolutely convinced, Dr Einstein understands relativity." Great read.

What to say? Not much. A lot. There are probably spoilers herein. My take on him via this biography, is that he was intellectually exceptional for the time and the generally close minded scientific community, but he seems to have been a rather petty and unspectacular man, emotionally. Downright mean. A chauvinist. At one point he states that Marie Curie could not possibly have broken up the marriage of her dead husband's lab assistant because she was not attractive enough. Also, in writing to the daughter of a woman he made romantic or sexual overtures to during his first marriage, he referred to his first wife, Mileva, as "uncommonly ugly." Wow. That shocked me. Mileva made the mistake of being too "dark", "melancholy" — as the book states repeatedly — "depressive", "jealous" and ultimately put a stop the would-be affair by exposing the letters to the other woman's husband. This was the best way to go about it at the time, and it worked. Meanwhile, eventually, Einstein gives her a list of terms, of the things she was to do for him, to keep the marriage going. The list was pretty degrading and hateful. One gets the sense that Mileva was too clever — they bonded over physics at college — and she was rather sad at her own ambitions not being fulfilled because she got pregnant, and it seems he also talked her into giving this child up, and it very likely later died, and basically she did not make things emotionally convenient for him. As for the terms he later gave her to follow if she wanted to remain married to such a prize: whether you're a man or a woman, it'd make you want to spit on a person, if they put it forward into words how much they hated you. I wouldn't say that I no longer admire him, but I suppose he feels more attainable now, and not the impossibly deep and mysterious genius that myth and history has painted him. I admire, more than anything, and always have (and I suppose this book has put the fact into clarity), that he came essentially from nothing and out of nowhere to become a — or THE — star of the scientific community. A real self-made person. Someone who had no connections in the beginning, no wealth, and gained those things, and notoriety, purely via perseverance and his ideas, and for being bold enough to be different for the time. He would probably still be rather different, and if you go a few days, or weeks, without brushing your hair, it's sort of a pass that you can get away with it because Einstein did, as long as it happens your simply too distracted with other things to bother with your hair. I really like the impersonal facts of his life, still, more than any idea itself, no matter how much of an intellectual leap relativity was at the time, or is, for some people, now. I say "for the time", because it doesn't take a genius to acknowledge that a single person's perspective is the only concrete reality there is. By that tack, only one truth of the "time" exists, and yet there are an infinite number of slightly different "truths", since only one thinking being can occupy one place at one time. Einstein's relativity is philosophical, regardless of his denials of the fact. Ultimately, he was as close-minded as anyone, as regarded things like black holes, which his own theory predicted, to be impossible and spent much of the latter half of his life on a crusade to divert quantum physics on the path it was ultimately put on by his own theories. Meanwhile, for someone to put philosophy into equations was and is quite different, but, like Newton, that's really all he did. He was hardly the first person who came to that conclusion. As for the book, it's a pretty breezy read. It's light on abstract stuff and heavy on his life purely as a story and the print is big, so it's fairly unintimidating and accessible.

Good layout and binding, not read yet.

To have read about Einstein as a man, and not merely a scientist, was most riveting. Possibly one of the most popular scientists of our time. Most notable of his traits were his humility, compassion, independent thinking, introversion, pacifism, disdain for bourgeois consumption or ostentatious wealth, and a desire for social equality. While his theories of special and general relativity will continue to elude me, one can still marvel at his thought making process. Pivotal Encounters I found it pivotal that Einstein met Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and Jost Winteller, at a young age, who believed in encouraging students to visualize images. He also thought it important to nurture the “inner dignity” and individuality of each child. Jost Winteller gave Einstein the wings to take flight on a prosperous career. Another fortunate encounter is with Marcel Grossman who lent Einstein, his maths notes while they were at Zurich Polytechnic and also offered him his first job. He later on provided the necessary Maths that Einstein needed to turn the special theory of relativity into a general theory. Einstein's reading group, the Olympia academy, largely helped in shaping his thoughts towards the theories on relativity. They mostly read books that explored the intersection of science and philosophy. Granted, Einstein's individual brilliance is something you see may be only once or twice in a century, but his story encompasses many more characters than popular account. Particularly, his life with Mileva Maric who mothered two of his children. Due to her first pregnancy, she found herself resigned to giving up her dream of being a scientific scholar. History continues to pay little regard to women who make it possible for men to pursue worthy careers. While Einstein met Hendrik Lorentz quite later in his life, Lorentz influence on him was still very profound. He was the one father figure in Einstein's life. During Lorentz funeral Einstein mentioned with great sadness: "Whatever came from this supreme mind was as lucid and beautiful as a good work of art. He meant more to me personally than anybody else I have met in my lifetime." It is also worth mentioning, the encounter between Niels Bohr and Einstein. To quote the social philosopher C. P. Snow: "No more profound intellectual debate has ever been conducted.” Another important woman in Einstein's life, Helen Dukas, was one who was completely discreet, protective, loyal, and not threatening to Elsa. Helen Dukas came to work as Einstein’s secretary in 1928, when he was confined to bed with an inflamed heart. To quote George Dyson: "Her instincts were as infallible and straightforward as a magnetic compass. Although she could display a pleasant smile and lively directness with those she liked, she was generally austere, hard-boiled, and at times quite prickly." During a later part of his life, Einstein became a closer friend, and a walking partner of the intensely introverted Kurt Gödel, a German-speaking mathematical logician from Brno and Vienna. Gödel wonderfully deliberated on the possibility of time travel basing on Einstein's theory of relativity. Other significant events It is also worth noting Einstein's role in the events that led up to the Manhattan Project and ultimately the construction of the atomic bomb. Einstein had contended that the only way to prevent an arms race of atomic weaponry was to bring about an internationalization of military power. As a Jew who had grown up in Germany, Einstein was acutely sensitive racial discrimination. “The more I feel an American, the more this situation pains me,” he wrote in an essay called “The Negro Question” for Pageant magazine. “I can escape the feeling of complicity in it only by speaking out.” It was interesting to note that Einstein was once offered a position as President of Israel. He was “deeply moved” by the offer, Einstein said in his prepared response, and “at once saddened and ashamed” that he would not accept it. “All my life I have dealt with objective matters, hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official function,” he explained. Conclusion To imagine that Einstein accomplished what he did, in a world before the internet, leaves me in overwhelming awe. I have developed great admiration for the life he lived, and I dare say that it was a FULL life. Notable Quotes “Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle.” “A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth.” “The Jew who abandons his faith,” he once said, “is in a similar position to a snail that abandons his shell. He is still a snail.” “I do not believe that the structure of the human brain is to be blamed for the fact that man cannot grasp infinity”

I checked this book out of the library and had to renew it several times to finish it, then finally bought it new for a very reasonable price through Amazon.com. I recommend it highly with certain reservations. Firstly, you really need a technical background to have a shot at understanding the physics the way it's presented in the initial chapters. I have to say, on this score, that I was disappointed in Isaacson's rather murky and overly involved explanations of Einstein's various physical concepts and hypotheses, as fascinating as some of his ideas were. He's a good writer, otherwise, but I wouldn't call him an excellent science writer because an excellent science writer can take difficult scientific concepts and make them understandable to a layman without oversimplifying the details. Isaacson does not accomplish that in this book, at least in my opinion, because his discussions of theoretical physics are not truly understandable to a non-physicist, even one with a fair degree of scientific training, at least if it's been quite awhile since you studied physics in school. The book, however, was interesting enough for me to keep plowing ahead, which proved well worth the substantial investment in time and energy. As the book moves beyond the technical phases of Einstein's early career, however, it undergoes a subtle transformation, becoming more interesting, more understandable, and very readable. The reader has seen this remarkable individual grow from an extremely intelligent yet egotistical and rather callous iconoclast to a first-rate human being. In fact, toward the end, it was like reading a spiritual work, very gripping and inspiring, which for me aptly coincided with the recent conjunction of Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon, a moving backdrop while finishing a book about Einstein. When I finally turned the last page, I was further inspired to read the new book on Oppenheimer entitled American Prometheus, which is also quite interesting (if a much sadder book). Since my own father was not only an accomplished nuclear and space physicist but a colleague of some of the leading physicists mentioned in these two books, I've been especially interested in the subject matter. As such, I can highly recommend this title to anyone interested in science, especially in Cosmology, or who is intrigued by a thoughtful and penetrating analysis of genius.

Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson is an awesome book about a man who was larger than life. Did I understand all of it? Nope. But that didn't keep me from enjoying it immensely. Walter Isaacson is known for his well-researched and well-written biographies of great men, and he was aided by the discovery of many of Einstein's previously unknown private letters in 1986. After going through the basics, the author alternates between Einstein's personal life, his scientific work and his political beliefs. As a physicist, Einstein possessed a brilliant mind. In 1905, he published four new theories that would change science forever. An uninspired student in college, he was unable to get a teaching job upon graduation. Instead, he ended up working for the Swiss Patent Office. This actually proved beneficial as it allowed him extra time to work on his theories. A humble man, Einstein believed that "knowledge is limited" and that curiosity and imagination were responsible for his discoveries. Isaacson tries to explain these in an easy-to-understand manner, but I still found my eyes glazing over in spots. By the end of his career, Einstein was no longer the innovative rebel but instead, the more conservative sage of Princeton. As for Einstein's personal life, the newly discovered letters allow Isaacson to write in more detail about the famous scientist than any other biographer. This new treasure trove sheds new light on his first marriage to Meliva Maric. Einstein had complicated relationships with both wives and his two sons, and he didn't always treat them admirably. Yet, he was a very social man and had dozens of life-long relationships with other scientists and mathematicians. Einstein was described as "kind, good-natured, gentle and unpretentious." This quiet and unassuming man became our first celebrity scientist and hoards of fans flocked to see him. In these respects, Einstein was much like Ben Franklin--another one of Isaacson's subjects. Einstein had strong political beliefs. He was both a socialist and a strong pacifist. But Hitler and Nazi anti-Semitism caused him to not only abandon his native Germany but also, to throw his weight behind the war effort. Einstein also decried racism. When Marian Anderson came to Princeton in 1937 to perform, the Nassau Inn refused her a room. Einstein opened his Princeton home to her. Although Isaacson's biography is exhaustive, he leaves just a few questions unanswered. First, whatever happened to his house in Caputh, Germany after the war? I discovered on the internet that it has a fascinating history that I'm sure Isaacson's readers would enjoy. Also, I wonder how the advent of the computer might have changed Einstein's accomplishments. But these are only small issues in an almost perfect book. I was never very interested in Albert Einstein, but Isaacson has piqued my interest. He succeeds in bringing to life this "locksmith" who "knows that math is the language nature uses to describe her wonders."

Walter Isaacson’s Einstein is a thorough and well-written guide to someone who has become known as the epitome of genius. As in his other biographies of great thinkers, Isaacson’s work centers around the personal qualities responsible for Einstein’s incredible progress in the world of physics. Isaacson emphasizes two character traits in particular that distinguished Einstein from other scientists: his almost obsessive sense of curiosity that led him to question why the physical world is as it is and a nature that was averse to dogma or a constraining authority in any sphere. As a former Physics major, this portrait of Einstein seems to me to have captured his essence correctly. Isaacson has also gotten the physics mostly right.(He seems to think that the role of the observer in quantum physics has to be someone with a consciousness. This is one of his more glaring errors, atypical as they may be.) The one criticism I would make of this book, and it is not really a fully fledged criticism, is that the author has little new to say about Einstein. All of his personality characteristics and the biographical details of his life are so well known that I wonder why Isaacson felt there was a need for another biography. If you are being introduced to Einstein as a person or thinker and want to read a first-rate biography of him, I strongly recommend this book by Isaacson. But if you already familiar with Einstein’s life and work from other biographies I do not see much advantage in reading this one. In short, like all of Isaacson’s biographies, keen psychological insight together with lively prose make this a fun read. But, on a subject as well studied as Albert Einstein, do not expect much original material to leap out of the text.