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For example while the fate of Lieserl Einstein is unknown, Isaacson gives a fair account. While the story of Albert Einstein's insatiable curiosity seems to have begun with a compass, navigating through the landscape of his quixotic life may not be an enjoyable terrain when presented in certain ways. Instead, it presents the right balance of science and the story of the man.In reading the book, one of the most surprising themes is the anti-semitism faced by Einstein. The positive reviews are well-founded.
Like the compass that sparked Einstein curiosity as to how things work, this book is balance. Chapters alternate between science and personal life with slightly more emphasis on personal life. As many people have, I have been waiting for a quality biogrpahy of Albert Einstein. Isaacson explores the most likely events as relates to Lieserl in the book.
Though thought to be a scientist, Einstein seemed to have a barometer for intolerance even at a young age. Initially, Einstein eccentric personality made this problematic enough. Walter Isaacson's biography does not overwhelm readers with scientific theories as to read like a physics book. The potential shame of Einstein siring a daughter premaritally in this era in certain societies would have limited ability to attain recognition of his research.
Initially distancing his heritage at a young age, he would eventually embrace it and become as much a part of his history as his theories.The book also explores territory that is often omitted in other biographies. Many dismissed his work such as his theory of relativism merely because Einstein was Jewish. Certainly aiding in self-preservation, it also fostered his status as a citizen of the world first and foremost.
Indeed Walter Isaacson has effectively enticed the biography reader and the science reader interested. Isaacson's writing style makes us feel like we know Einstein as he goes through his life. If you like Physics, Relativity, this won't be a dumbed down version.
The book does an excellent job of showing how Einstein became so prominent (he courted the press and guided his image, not to mention his genius) and the significant role public policy played in the second half of his life. This is an excellent biography. But those attitudes are presented gently, as Einstein "putters" and resists, and does not dominate or overpower the objective presentation of information. Otherwise, though, the explantions actually made me feel I understood what, say, relativity was about, though if you asked me to explain it minutes later, I could not have.All in all, an intresting and educational read.
I also thought the science explanations were good for this layman. If you hate science, this book will be problematc. With careful guidance and signposts from the author, that keep us from getting confused on the timing, I found this a very productive way to tell the story. So we might learn what happened with his science in 1920-25, and only later learn what was happening in his personal life at that time.
I started the book simply because I wanted to know more about Einstein, and I was right to do so. Chapters handle each of these areas one at time, rather than following strict chronological order. The author clearly is very fond of Einstein, and his thesis is that Einstein, and his genius, were defined by his inclination to flout convention and resist authority. I also liked the way the book handled Einstein's science, his personal life, and his public life outside of science.
He was REALLY big --- Muhammad Ali big --- for a period of decades. In short, the author has a point of view, but he uses it to create a theme without letting it dominate or control the story. While Einstein remains an icon, even this middle-aged professor did not have a full sense of the central role of Einstein in the social history of the first-half of the 20th Century.
The race with David Hilbert to publish the General Relativity papers reads almost like a thriller.The only very minor gripe I had was that it is well known that he spent many futile years on his Unified Field Theory, but describing his every frustration with it makes the narrative a bit tedious in some chapters. It takes a lot of skill to write such a balanced narrative, and Isaacson pulls it off adroitly. The narrative moves at a pleasant pace - from modest beginnings in Zurich, the magic year in Bern, to fame and authority in Berlin, and later in the US, to a poignant ending in Princeton. Amazing work by Walter Isaacson. Instead it could have focussed a bit more on his life in Princeton itself - I heard he had a brief interaction with John Nash - but that is not mentioned anywhere.We will never know details of the personal lives of Newton and Galileo and Euclid - so well written books like this are all the more valuable because this is the first time ever in the history of mankind that we get to follow the personal life Albert Einstein - the genius who we can proudly claim lived in 'our times'. This helps appreciate the depth of Einstein's world. I was amazed at how well he has explained Relativity and Quantum Physics, albeit at an extremely high level for the layman. In one chapter he explains relativity of gravitational and intertial masses and the gist of the Bose-Einstein condensation, and in the next he talks about Einstein's personal God, philosophy and relationships with women.
I already knew the theory of relativity was important, and I knew some of the famous formulas, and the biography makes clear that the theories were revolutionary to science. His is unquestionably an interesting life that intersects with so much of importance to contemporary history--the rise of science, the changing face of Europe, America as an emerging power because it provided the sort of freedom that men like Einstein needed. Having read many good reviews of this biography, and not knowing much about Einstein beyond media sound bites, I'd been looking forward to this read. Isaacson provides a steady, linear narrative in smooth prose that follows Einstein from a rather unexceptional childhood through an odd but extraordinary early career (working in a patent office and on the fringes of academia while also having very normal struggles to establish a marriage and family) to a prolonged and fascinating period of intellectual celebrity. So perhaps part of what made the second half of the book more interesting to me than the first was trying to figure this out--why exactly was Einstein such a celebrity as a scientist. His career was both incredibly productive and somewhat circuitous--somehow it was interesting to learn that Einstein was not always right, and he was fairly well aware of that fact.The biography's ability to portray Einstein as both normal and special made for good reading, but if anything may have erred to much on the side of emphasizing the normal. But I did want to know exactly why his science is so significant.
But I was never entirely convinced that quality alone was distinct enough to merit his fame. The book's main thesis is that Einstein was a special scientist, and person, because he was able to go beyond the details and conceptualize new and powerful ways of understanding the world.
Einstein struggled to maintain close relationships with women and with his children, while simultaneously maintaining deep interpersonal respect and human concern. What are the real implications to people like me.
And it was satisfying. But I still don't really know why it all matter outside of physics.
But I still find myself wondering why Einstein alone has come to be associated with ultimate genius. It is a tribute to the flow of the biography that as a reader I consistently felt the simultaneous presence in Einstein's life of common foibles and uncommon genius.
I'm glad the book didn't go into too much detail on the significance of Einstein's science--that would have lost me.
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