Einstein: His Life and Universe
by Walter Isaacson
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Book Reviews of Einstein: His Life and Universe
Book Review: Sorting out the genius, the man, and the state of modern science
Summary: 5 Stars
Writing about Einstein's standing in the history of modern science requires wide and deep knowledge of diverse disciplines, let alone the highly demanded writer's discretion in filtering out public propaganda from objective factual information. This author earns an "A" in his objective analysis of how Albert Einstein, the man, has demonstrated his genius in answering the pressing questions of the twentieth century's modern science.
The book describes in vivid details the timeframe when Einstein engaged in academic research. The genius of Einstein was not born in vacuum. Einstein's generation was confronted with the new findings of subatomic particles, artificial radiation, and electromagnetism. Einstein's first defined mission was to tackle the puzzle of ether as a medium for propagating radiation. Einstein brilliantly capitalized on the experiment of the constancy of the speed of light, regardless of the Earth's rotation, and devised the theory of relativity with the conservative restraint that Newton's classical mechanics remains a valid subset of relativistic mechanics.
Adhering to Newton's doctrine, Einstein again reconciled Plank's quanta with Newton's postulate that light was both corpuscular and particulate. Thus, Einstein hit two birds with one stone: the quanta. Einstein defended the Maxwellian wave theory of electromagnetism as a time-averaged interpretation of Newtonian particulate nature of radiation. With both Plank's quanta, Kirchhoff's blackbody radiation, and Lernard's photoelectric effect, Einstein was able to seal his genius in the history of modern science as the discoverer of the law of quantization of radiation.
As the previous greater theoreticians; Newton and Maxwell had proven their genius by relying on the experimental works of Copernicus and Faraday, Einstein followed the same path by capitalizing on Kirchhoff's and Lenard's experimental findings of the nature of interaction of radiation and matter. The book demonstrates the atmosphere of sharing knowledge in Europe in the early 1900's that engaged Einstein to the earnest interactions of the greatest scientific minds of his time.
The First World War signaled the end of Einstein's greatest contribution to science. With the defeat of Germany, Einstein was on the run for safe haven. Though America offered Einstein such sanctuary, the American nuclear and atomic research was government-run and excluded the non-conformist scientists such as Einstein. Einstein's genius dried up by the indiscriminate governmental exclusion of his new homeland. Immigration to the new land, offered Einstein the financial security and the public fame minus the scientific prosperity. Einstein ran away from Nazism and Fascism yet to confront McCarthyism and racial tension in America.
The book sheds light of the personal limitations that hindered Albert Einstein in maintaining healthy family relation. Einstein's entanglements in international and local politics at the expense of catching up with modern advances in nuclear physics was paralleled by his alienation of his ex-wife and ill son and his stubborn adherence to unify gravitation and electromagnetism despite his lack of follow up of any new experimental breakthroughs. For twenty years after arriving in America, Einstein never traveled overseas except to get a visa from Bermuda, never drove an automobile, and squandered the wise years of old age in beating up Mathematics for the sake of chilling Physics. While Einstein chose theoretical physics; a hen that lays few eggs, experimentalists such as Ernest Rutherford and Marie Curie had laid many golden eggs that advanced modern science to highest level. Rutherford chased the mystery of the Neutron for two decades while Curie and her daughter unravelled the mystery of radioactivity -artificial and natural- and thus established a new era of nuclear physics, in the maintime when Einstein was chasing his own tail over mathematical abstraction.
The book clearly rebuts the aura that Einstein was the greatest mathematicians and explains how Einstein relied on his colleagues to devise the theory of General relativity. The book sheds light on Einstein's struggles with endless errors and miscalculation that squandered many decades of his old age in seeking a unified field theory that reconciles the particulate nature of radiation with gravitation. Furthermore, the writer did not shy away from the controversy of awarding Einstein the Nobel Prize for the work pioneered by Philipp Lenard, while the theory of relativity remained a philosophical puzzle. Even Einstein had poked holes in his own theory while attacking Quantum mechanics for spooky actions at distances. Niels Bohr's explanation that objects entangled in actions serve a defined quantum function explains how all objects in the universe serve specific quantum function by lieu of their entanglement in gravitational actions. An explanation that defeats the main argument about the relativistic nature of time postulated by Einstein.
Finally, the book leaves the objective reader with many questions: whether or not Einstein's neglect of his personal appearance, his content with marrying his cousin, refusing to see his own ill son Edwards and his estranged ex-wife, refraining from travel, shutting off his mind to new developments in science, indulging in smoking despites his doctor's advice, and sticking to his guns on relying solely on mathematics to solve physical puzzles; were in any way signs of his overall detachment both from science and life? Whether or not the public reverence of Einstein falls within the realm of glorifying superstars, elevating them to superhuman status, and has contributed to Einstein's mental freezing? Whether of not spoiling scientists with extravagant privileges undermines their ability to excel in their field of search for knowledge?
Though Einstein lived long enough to enjoy the demise of Nazism and Fascism, the success of tapping into the nuclear energy, he died few years before the invasion of space became reality, the wide proliferation of the solid-state computers, laser applications, particle accelerators, discovery of the genetic codes, the end of McCarthyism and the triumph of the civil rights movement.
Book Review: Einstein: His Life and Universe is the Best of Both Worlds
Summary: 4 Stars
Winner of Time Magazines person of the 20th Century, Albert Einstein was a legend in his own time and his scientific ideas continue to live on today. Walter Isaacson's recent biography, Einstein His Life and Universe, is an in depth look at this icon, his life, ideas and tribulations. Born in Germany, this boy genius was a rebel and not a very good student when he was young. Unhappy with authority and the Prussian mind set of strict discipline, he found a better life for free thinkers in neighboring Switzerland. A graduate of The Zurich Polytechnic and later an employee at the the Bern Patent Office, he had a hard time finding work. His desire to work at more respectable universities were often met with letters of rejection. With a chaotic marriage, coupled with child custody problems and a later divorce, it is a miracle that this man came up with such breakthroughs in theoretical physics. But he did and it changed the lives of humanity to this day.
Isaacson, does a good job in his book of not only covering Einstein's life but describes his theories of Special and General Relativity; with later introductions to Quantum Theory, that a "smart" layman can understand. I had to re-read the juicy scientific parts a few times to digest it, but it was worth the effort. Later in his life, Einstein wrestled with a unified field theory that would unite gravity and electromagnetism with the crazy unpredictable micro world of Quantum Mechanics. He did not have much success but did make some interesting observations and had many theories and opinions on this new and strange small atomic world. Being world famous and on the speakers circuit, Einstein was thrown into the political mix of the 1920's and 1930's and eventually made decisions that would later affect his life. An early believer in a Jewish state, he helped the Zionist movement and the creation of a Hebrew university in Israel. A staunch opponent to militant nationalism politics, he unknowingly endorsed anti war Communist front group causes and later was seen as a risk to national security during World War Two. But, there was no doubt that he was a proud American. Einstein would joke that he was not a Pacifist, but a militant pacifist. His utopia vision for the world was a one world benevolent government that ensured individual freedoms and encouraged free thought. As for the development of the A-Bomb, Einstein was not a active participant in its construction, but his famous equation of, e=mc2, was the building block that helped make it.
This book is an enjoyable read because it covers all parts of Einstein's life to include the lighter side of this deep thinker. His love of life, his love of people and his quick witted humor and absentmindedness is a trait that many people equate with this great man. One example is when he would take his hat off during a rainstorm saying that he knew that his hair could withstand the rain but he was unsure of how his hat would hold up. He would listen to his students ideas and theories and even help small children in his neighborhood with their math homework. I have read other books on Albert Einstein, but I would recommend that this one be put on the list of favorites. Some are not as complete, while others deal mainly with his science- but this one is a pleasant mixture of both. I enjoyed this book and found it informative, educational and interesting on the life of this human legend. This is a great biography of a most interesting man, with a good dose of science, and this makes this book the best of both worlds.
Robert Glasker
Book Review: limited
Summary: 1 Stars
First let me say that this seems to be a decent biography. Since that's all I wanted out of the book, you'd think I would be happy. But there are problems.
Unfortunately, the many discussions about Einstein's theories were not even slightly good. They were pretty much what you would expect from a journalist with little meaningful scientific training, in other words, inadequate. I don't know how he goofed this up since there are hundreds of books that do a decent job of making the stuff understandable. All he had to do was paraphrase here and there. He could even have copied Einstein's own words!
The main problem with the book, however, was with the mis characterization of Einstein including his beliefs and accomplishments. Throughout the book, he correctly relates that Einstein pretty much regarded himself as a scientist who just happened to be born Jewish. He married a Catholic, did not raise his children as Jews and even favored Palestinian causes. And yet Isaacson keeps trying to stretch him into the role of "our Jew." Isaacson even tries to convince us that Einstein was handsome. He seems to see the world only as Jews and non Jews.
This kind of ethnic exaggeration pervades the book and becomes annoying after a while. He mentions, for instance, that in pre Hitler Germany, 40% of the top scientists were Jewish. And yet he claims that Jews were treated unfairly in scientific circles there. This is the type of stuff that sets Jews back as others see this kind of thinking for the nonsense it is. Although Jews and others have almost completely melted into American society over the last century, chauvinist throwbacks like this pop up now and then to reignite a long ago melted stereotype. I have more Gentile friends than my parents, not because of any bias, but because my friendships are forged by factors other than cultural heritage, factors that have become more relevant. Now we Americans don't hang out in ethnic enclaves, we fight with each other in all sorts of unique ways--males and females, blacks and whites, Democrats an Republicans, whacko Christians and all other, Muslims and all other, the list goes on. Jews in America vs anyone else almost seems like a joke.
I might add that anyone who has undergone one of those genetic ancestry tests would readily agree that the whole concept of cultural origins is much more complicated that any one word label. In fact if you go back far enough, you get into being a descendant of a creepy swamp thing with hair vs one without and with gills, all of whom pooped in their pond water.
Nobody doubts that Einstein was a great scientist. But it is also true that he burned out early and turned into a shameless showboat, complete with his own bimbos and entourage. His scientific theories were quickly surpassed in large part by quantum mechanics and left unfulfilled by his weakness in mathematics. The fuzzy hair and rumpled suits were a sideshow.
Book Review: Good, but not to the level of Isaacson's "Franklin"
Summary: 4 Stars
It is interesting to see that 4 years after Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin: An American Life he chose to write about another rebel scientist in Albert Einstein. While the two men make a great compare/contrast it doesn't make it any easier for the author writing the books (NOTE: At no point during "Einstein" does Isaacson try to compare/contrast the two). While writing on Franklin most readers can grasp the scientific and political thoughts that are being discussed. This is not necessarily true of the readers of Einstein.
I need to offer a bit of a disclaimer - I am a degreed engineer who has taken multiple classes in quantum mechanics. However, there are times I had difficulty in grasping the concepts that Isaacson was presenting. While I believe that Isaacson did much research I did find that his approach to explaining the concepts to be a bit clumsy. Please do not take this as being overly negative - MOST people will look clumsy when trying to explain the theory of general relativity or the photoelectric effect. However, in "einstein" it made sections of the book very difficult to read much less comprehend. I have a lot of sympathy to the readers who have never been introduced to these concepts prior to reading "Einstein".
That is the negative - it can be a very difficult read at times (which is the reason for 4 stars instead of 5). On a positive note (and there are many more positives than negatives) Isaacson has presented us with a lovable yet humanly flawed Einstein. We are told of the passion and failures of his first marriage. We are shown great insights into the curious thought experiments that he performed to generate his great insights (such as a person who is accelerated downward at high acceleration doesn't know if it is "gravity" or another force that he is feeling) or the perceived changes in light on a passenger on a train compared to someone viewing from the train station.
Another insight that we rarely see is his opposition to nationalism and the loss of personal liberty. Einstein was a very outspoken critic of McCarthyism and he did not shy away from the controversy. In short, Einstein was a rebel for the conventional thought of science and that of politics. Isaacson is very skilled in showing these comparisons throughout Einstein's life.
While Isaacson's "Einstein" does not reach the level of "Franklin" in story-telling skill or scientific explanation it is still a must read for anyone curious in the development of modern thought in Physics...for everyone else... I hope you are up to the challenge. 4 stars.
4 stars.
Book Review: Albert Einstein is a human being first most
Summary: 5 Stars
I was able to get this book from my library in audio. After the very first paragraph, I found myself looking for excuses to drive around on long trips just so I could listen to the book. I only have listened to half the book so far and found myself compelled to write a review. This book is just amazing and anyone who did not give this book a five, should read or listen to the book again. I will say here that I found myself having common ground with Einstein on many issues. This after hearing about the great scientist for all my life but not being much into physics did not understand why he was so great except that he had some great theories that I did not understand till I listened to this book. Common ground, I can only say that because the book showed the Human side of Einstein behind the theories. Like Einstein, I am of German Jewish heritage and understand that part of the story and how it effected the person and his dedication to science, the obstacles he had to overcome the sacrifices he made as a person to let his science which he knew was correct reveal itself to the world. I loved the idea of the book in revealing what was important to Einstein himself, in my opinion the real message and legacy Einstein wanted to leave behind that his science was just a tool for that end ; a unified world where scientists and natures good were more important than the militaristic Prussian nationalistic mentality of the time. Einstein would have loved Star Trek, I am sure, which was on TV only ten years after his death. Einstein , before his science, as a person, first took on Swiss nationality so he would not have to live in Germany. The other part I found myself having common ground , myself a researcher in behavioral psychophysiology, was that Einstein was able to bring to imagination in visual imagery first his ideas. Myself a teacher of guided imagery, art creativity , and learning strategies, I was amazed that Einstein used these methods. He was way ahead of his time. Only recently can you find math books that are written for visual learners. As someone who wrote books on creativity, and teaches creativity and art as a profession, I just have to say, if you ever read one amazing biography in your life, Read Einstein which was written in such a good and fun way. PS the book also shows Einsteins love of the arts and that he was an accomplished musician) Yes, science can be fun as Einstein taught us. Creative Painting for the Young Artist Exotic and Meditative Sights and Sounds from Israel