Einstein

From Barnes & Noble

A century after Albert Einstein began postulating his "Big Idea" about time, space, and gravity, a new biography examines the scientist whose public idolization was surpassed only by his legitimacy as one of humanity's greatest thinkers. Walter Isaacson, the author of excellent profiles of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger, utilizes a trove of material from recently opened Einstein archives to offer a probing look at a provocatively freethinking individual.

Janet Maslin

With the help of many witty, candid letters, Mr. Isaacson offers a wonderfully rounded portrait of the ever-surprising Einstein personality. Equally important is the Einstein myth, and the material on this subject is even more entertaining. Einstein horrified his colleagues by enjoying his vast celebrity. (“Einstein’s personality, for no clear reasons, triggers outbursts of a kind of mass hysteria,” the German consul reported to Berlin as the great man made one of his rock-star visits to New York.) He also stymied the press in its efforts to keep up with his accomplishments. Mr. Isaacson has great fun with the reportorial frenzy that surrounded each new pearl of Einsteinian wisdom … an illuminating delight.
— The New York Times

Michael Dirda

In a famous catchphrase, Einstein couldn't believe that God played with dice, and for decades he kept up the search for a "unified field theory" that would make sense of everything. Einstein: His Life and Universe covers all this and much else in a painstaking and reliable biography. You won't go wrong in reading and learning from it.
— The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

Herrmann's reading offers solid, enjoyable and informative listening. Herrmann knows when his material is strong and does not try to compete with it. Instead, he delivers a straightforward yet endearing portrait of arguably the best mind of the last century. Herrmann keeps the text purely narrative, refraining from affecting a German accent when quoting Einstein and others, with the occasional accent appropriately slipping in only when pronouncing foreign words. In this, the first full biography based on Einstein's newly released personal letters, Isaacson takes care to keep the great mind's discoveries and theories comprehensible. Einstein, whose internally visualized "thought experiments" often led to his groundbreaking observations (at 16 he imagined chasing a light beam until he caught up to it), expressed these images with simplicity and elegance. Einstein's rebellious personality as well as the internal workings of his brilliant mind are brought vividly to life thanks to Herrmann's perfect reading, which is filled with warmth and accuracy. Simultaneous release with the S&S hardcover (Reviews, Feb. 12). (May)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Criticas

Although the author appropriately makes Einstein's extraordinary scientific achievements the center of attention, he also covers his subject's complex and often painful familial relationships, his political interventions and comments, and his remarkable celebrity status (for a scientist) with the American public. Isaacson himself does not have a strong scientific background, but professional specialists in physics and mathematics assisted him effectively. This work, the first full biography of Einstein since all his papers have been made available, is certainly one of the best and most complete Einstein biographies thus far. [LJ2/15/07]

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Library Journal

This biography of Albert Einstein (1879-1955) takes a cue from Isaacson's recent success, Benjamin Franklin, and is written for a general audience. Although the author appropriately makes Einstein's extraordinary scientific achievements the center of attention, he also covers his subject's complex and often painful familial relationships, his political interventions and comments, and his remarkable celebrity status (for a scientist) with the American public. Isaacson himself does not have a strong scientific background, but professional specialists in physics and mathematics assisted him effectively. This work, the first full biography of Einstein since all his papers have been made available, is well written and sensibly balanced in its treatment of the famed theoretical physicist, his family, and his friends. Certainly one of the best and most complete Einstein biographies thus far; strongly recommended for public and academic libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ12/06.]
—Jack W. Weigel

Kirkus Reviews

A comprehensive and marvelously readable life of the eminent scientist-and more, the eminent counter-culturalist, rebel, humanist and philanderer. "A century after his great triumphs, we are still living in Einstein's universe," writes Aspen Institute president and former CNN head Isaacson (Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, 2003, etc.), "one defined on the macro scale by his theory of relativity and on the micro by a quantum mechanics that has proven durable even as it remains disconcerting to some." Brave enough to tread on such highly specialized ground, and working with newly available archival materials, Isaacson lucidly explains the finer points of Einstein's theories. One, the general theory of relativity, had its birth, Isaacson writes, while Einstein was struggling to write an article on his special theory of relativity; sitting in his office in Bern, where he worked as a patent-examiner, he had the thought, "If a person falls freely, he will not feel his own weight"-"the happiest thought in my life," Einstein recalled-but underlying it is some formidable work in physics and mathematics that took Einstein many subsequent years to express, and Isaacson acquits himself very well in taking readers along some strenuous paths of reasoning. Along with the science, Isaacson gives us an Einstein with whom it might have been fun to enjoy a stein of beer-unless you were married to him, a different story altogether, for by Isaacson's account, Einstein was sufficiently sure of his own genius and the needs it entailed that he refused to be tied down by the ordinary rules applied to husbands and fathers. One daughter he even abandoned without a look back, but this was typical of hisnonconformity, which, Isaacson writes, was characteristic of Einstein until the very end of his life. An exemplary biography, at once sympathetic and unsparing. Readers will admire Einstein's greatness as a thinker, but they will now know that he, like all other idols, had feet of clay. See Jurgen Neffe's Einstein (2007) for more on the subject. First printing of 500,000; first serial to Time

From the Publisher

"Walter Isaacson has captured the complete Einstein. With an effortless style that belies a sharp attention to detail and scientific accuracy, Isaacson takes us on a soaring journey through the life, mind, and science of the man who changed our view of the universe." — Brian Greene, Professor of Physics at Columbia and author of The Fabric of the Cosmos

"This book does an amazing job getting the science right and the man revealed." — Sylvester James Gates, Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland

"This book will be widely and deservedly admired. It is excellently readable and combines the personal and the scientific aspects of Einstein's life in a graceful way." — Gerald Holton, Professor of Physics at Harvard and author of Einstein, History, and Other Passions

"Once again Walter Isaacson has produced a most valuable biography of a great man about whom much has already been written. It helps that he has had access to important new material. He met the challenge of dealing with his subject as a human being and describing profound ideas in physics. His biography is a pleasure to read and makes the great physicist come alive." — Murray Gell-Mann, winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics and author of The Quark and the Jaguar

"With unmatched narrative skill, Isaacson has managed the extraordinary feat of preserving Einstein's monumental stature while at the same time bringing him to such vivid life that we come to feel as if he could be walking in our midst. This is a terrific work." — Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

"Isaacson's treatment of Einstein's scientific work is excellent: accurate, complete, and just the right level of detail for the general reader. Taking advantage of the wealth of recently uncovered historical material, he has produced the most readable biography of Einstein yet." — A. Douglas Stone, Professor of Physics at Yale

"This is a brilliant intellectual tapestry — and a great read. Skillfully weaving Einstein's revolutionary scientific achievements, his prolific political initiatives, his complex personal life, and his fascinating personality, Isaacson has transformed the transformer of the twentieth century into a beacon for the twenty-first century." — Martin J. Sherwin, coauthor of American Prometheus:The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for biography

"I found so much to admire; there are many places where I just had to cheer what Isaacson had written." — Dudley Herschbach, Professor of Science at Harvard

"Isaacson has written a crisp, engaging, and refreshing biography, one that beautifully masters the historical literature and offers many new insights into Einstein's work and life." — Diana Kormos Buchwald, General Editor of the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein

"Isaacson has admirably succeeded in weaving together the complex threads of Einstein's personal and scientific life to paint a superb portrait." — Arthur I. Miller, author of Einstein, Picasso