Einstein: His Life and Universe
by Walter Isaacson
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Book Reviews of Einstein: His Life and Universe
Book Review: Einstein the Human Being
Summary: 5 Stars
Einstein: His Life and Universe, written by Walter Isaacson, is one of the enjoyable physics works I have ever read. While providing an excellent and in-depth study of Albert Einstein throughout his entire life, it is an even better source of information concerning his work in science. Isaacson has the ability to explain his theories in such a way that not only it is easy to understand; it is a pleasure to do so. All other books and articles I have read about Albert Einstein cannot even compare to the quality of this work. I hardily recommend to anyone that has an interest in Einstein and the basics of his theories.
In combining the life and the work of Einstein, this is a comprehensive volume on everything concerning this singular man. Engagingly written, I found that I actually looked forward to the spare moments when I would be able to sit down and learn a little bit more about the man that has influenced so much of modern scientific thought. Isaacson wrote for a popular audience, explaining everything in simple, non-technical terms that is rarely mystifying. That being said, it would be helpful to know a little bit about the major players of the physics community throughout the life time of Einstein. I found myself confused at parts about the significance of many of Einstein's contemporaries.
Ironically, my strongest complaint has nothing to do with the quality of the book itself. In reading hundreds of pages about the personal life of Albert Einstein, he is revealed as a somewhat bitter and spiteful man in his personal life, in complete contrast to the beneficent old man that he is so often portrayed as. It appears that this image of him came only in his old age at Princeton University. I found myself finding the man himself slightly distasteful, though never uninteresting. Though this came as a shock, it is the nature of a biography, and Isaacson never drops to hero worship; he presents Einstein as he was, not as he is venerated today. I am very glad Isaacson kept his professionalism as a biographer whereas many other sources I have come across do not. While disagreeing with his personal relations to his wife, I admired his outspoken nature in publically advocating what he thought to be right.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Einstein: His Life and Universe. Isaacson presents a brilliant but flawed human being; presenting all sides of every issue. Never really presenting Einstein the symbol, this book is firmly about Einstein the man. I recommend this book to all as an excellent introduction to twenty-first century physical thought.
Book Review: Smooth and compelling
Summary: 4 Stars
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. And it was satisfying. 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. 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. Einstein struggled to maintain close relationships with women and with his children, while simultaneously maintaining deep interpersonal respect and human concern. 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. I'm glad the book didn't go into too much detail on the significance of Einstein's science--that would have lost me. But I did want to know exactly why his science is so significant. 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. But I still don't really know why it all matter outside of physics. What are the real implications to people like me? 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. But I was never entirely convinced that quality alone was distinct enough to merit his fame. 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 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. But I still find myself wondering why Einstein alone has come to be associated with ultimate genius.
Book Review: shallow book! at best for 10-year-old kids
Summary: 2 Stars
As a physics major student, I have taken a philosophy of science course this term. This book is recommended to me by my philosophy of science professor. She said this book revealed something "new" about Einstein. How absurd. Apart from that the book revealed this and that relationships of Einstein, nothing is new. I am DISGUSTED particularly with the author's paragraphs on General relativity and unified Field theories. Downright Disgusting! He basically has taken the popular view that Einstein's later years' work was most unproductive and futile. Utterly Wrong! At least I've met two physics professors who told me that they have learned more physics from Einstein's later works than from his earlier works. Indeed, I personally think the same. General Relativity is elegant and ground-breaking, but its math is sooo ugly. Basically all you need to do about general relativity is to solve a bunch of equations.Modern cosmology has a lot of developments that must be attributed to Einstein's works in latter years. His unified field theory works are quite refined, and if given more time, I believe he would develop a theory more ground-breaking than general relativity. General relativity is simply an extension of special relativity. My god I'm so disgusted with this book. Does the author understand relativity at all? Does he know any philosophy of science? Has he read any Thomas Kuhn, Kant, or J.S.Mill?
To the best of my knowledge, one is not qualified to write about Einstein unless he is sorta a scientist himself. I recommend Pais's Subtle Is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein to all readers who want a solid understanding of Einstein as an individual. If you have read Pais, don't you ever set your eyes on this book! The author has no understanding of relativistic physics whatsoever and most of his interpretations are shallow, erroneous and even worse than many interpretations in popular science books.
This book is at best for a 10-year-old kid. So shallow and hackneyed. I don't learn anything new from reading this book apart from that Einstein had a complex relationship with Maric his first wife and Maric was sorta an early female scientist.Even judging from a purely literary point of view, this book is highly flawed. The author's language and style is so like that of an officious amateur trying to trick non-scientists. Read Lightman's Einstein's Dreams if you want to read some "literary" Einstein. But O Man Not this book!
Book Review: Einstein's Reluctance to Embrace Quantum Mechanics
Summary: 5 Stars
So much for so little! An enjoyable multifaceted look at one of the most brilliant minds of our time, Isaacson does a great job depicting the inner workings of Einstein's thought processes and his famous thought experiments. I frequently use thought experiments in my product development, so I really enjoyed that aspect. Given the numerous comprehensive reviews written, I will stick to the most important realizations or conclusions perhaps not touched upon.
Einstein, as a young bohemian was a free spirited and fearless free thinker with the knowledge that a comprehensive view was always best. Unfortunately, later in life he conformed to his own "conventional" wisdom, and as sophisticated as this wisdom may have been, this would prove to hinder his thought processes later in life. With Einstein's own thought process now "stuck" within a box he himself built, the rest of his life would prove to be an exercise in futility running countless equations, without the right tools, literally up until the day he died. The stubborn and rebellious nature of this great thinker, which led him to greatness in the first place, would now be the source of his torment, which he did seem to come to peace with at the end.
Einstein's reluctance to embrace quantum mechanics and his fear of accepting the "evil or spooky" quanta hindered any further ground breaking developments. I can't help believe that with the supremacy of Einstein's mind, had he only embraced quantum mechanics, he may have been able to understand the seemingly inconsistent continuity and realize there was no "conflict" between all of the theories; general relativity and the possibility of the unified theory included. Quanta could have bridged this in his mind, but his fear of nothing being left of his "castle of general relativity in the sky" was just too much for him to bare. At the same time, this proves Einstein more than sensed his own barrier, which turned out to literally be the cause of his failure. How sad indeed that the master of free thinking could egotistically conform to his own constraints, impede his own progress and turn into what he had fought against so passionately throughout his younger years! Einstein, Einstein, Einstein!
Well researched, entertaining and thought provoking, I give Einstein: His Life and Universe a huge thumbs up! Nichol J. Nelson
Book Review: This inspiring tome is well worth the considerable time it takes to get through it
Summary: 5 Stars
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.