Einstein: His Life and Universe |  | Author: Walter Isaacson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
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Rating:  249 reviews
Sales Rank: 13984
Media: Paperback
Pages: 704
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 2
ISBN: 0743264746
Dewey Decimal Number: 530.092
EAN: 9780743264747
ASIN: 0743264746
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
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Amazon.com Review
As a scientist, Albert Einstein is undoubtedly the most epic among 20th-century thinkers. Albert Einstein as a man, however, has been a much harder portrait to paint, and what we know of him as a husband, father, and friend is fragmentary at best. With Einstein: His Life and Universe, Walter Isaacson (author of the bestselling biographies Benjamin Franklin and Kissinger) brings Einstein's experience of life, love, and intellectual discovery into brilliant focus. The book is the first biography to tackle Einstein's enormous volume of personal correspondence that heretofore had been sealed from the public, and it's hard to imagine another book that could do such a richly textured and complicated life as Einstein's the same thoughtful justice. Isaacson is a master of the form and this latest opus is at once arresting and wonderfully revelatory. --Anne Bartholomew
Read "The Light-Beam Rider," the first chapter of Walter Isaacson's Einstein: His Life and Universe.
Five Questions for Walter Isaacson
 Amazon.com: What kind of scientific education did you have to give yourself to be able to understand and explain Einstein's ideas?
Isaacson: I've always loved science, and I had a group of great physicists--such as Brian Greene, Lawrence Krauss, and Murray Gell-Mann--who tutored me, helped me learn the physics, and checked various versions of my book. I also learned the tensor calculus underlying general relativity, but tried to avoid spending too much time on it in the book. I wanted to capture the imaginative beauty of Einstein's scientific leaps, but I hope folks who want to delve more deeply into the science will read Einstein books by such scientists as Abraham Pais, Jeremy Bernstein, Brian Greene, and others.
Amazon.com: That Einstein was a clerk in the Swiss Patent Office when he revolutionized our understanding of the physical world has often been treated as ironic or even absurd. But you argue that in many ways his time there fostered his discoveries. Could you explain?
Isaacson: I think he was lucky to be at the patent office rather than serving as an acolyte in the academy trying to please senior professors and teach the conventional wisdom. As a patent examiner, he got to visualize the physical realities underlying scientific concepts. He had a boss who told him to question every premise and assumption. And as Peter Galison shows in Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps, many of the patent applications involved synchronizing clocks using signals that traveled at the speed of light. So with his office-mate Michele Besso as a sounding board, he was primed to make the leap to special relativity.
Amazon.com: That time in the patent office makes him sound far more like a practical scientist and tinkerer than the usual image of the wild-haired professor, and more like your previous biographical subject, the multitalented but eminently earthly Benjamin Franklin. Did you see connections between them?
Isaacson: I like writing about creativity, and that's what Franklin and Einstein shared. They also had great curiosity and imagination. But Franklin was a more practical man who was not very theoretical, and Einstein was the opposite in that regard.
Amazon.com: Of the many legends that have accumulated around Einstein, what did you find to be least true? Most true?
Isaacson: The least true legend is that he failed math as a schoolboy. He was actually great in math, because he could visualize equations. He knew they were nature's brushstrokes for painting her wonders. For example, he could look at Maxwell's equations and marvel at what it would be like to ride alongside a light wave, and he could look at Max Planck's equations about radiation and realize that Planck's constant meant that light was a particle as well as a wave. The most true legend is how rebellious and defiant of authority he was. You see it in his politics, his personal life, and his science.
Amazon.com: At Time and CNN and the Aspen Institute, you've worked with many of the leading thinkers and leaders of the day. Now that you've had the chance to get to know Einstein so well, did he remind you of anyone from our day who shares at least some of his remarkable qualities?
Isaacson: There are many creative scientists, most notably Stephen Hawking, who wrote the essay on Einstein as "Person of the Century" when I was editor of Time. In the world of technology, Steve Jobs has the same creative imagination and ability to think differently that distinguished Einstein, and Bill Gates has the same intellectual intensity. I wish I knew politicians who had the creativity and human instincts of Einstein, or for that matter the wise feel for our common values of Benjamin Franklin.
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Product Description
By the author of the acclaimed bestseller Benjamin Franklin, this is the first full biography of Albert Einstein since all of his papers have become available.How did his mind work? What made him a genius? Isaacson's biography shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. His fascinating story is a testament to the connection between creativity and freedom. Based on newly released personal letters of Einstein, this book explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk -- a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn't get a teaching job or a doctorate -- became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos, the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe. His success came from questioning conventional wisdom and marveling at mysteries that struck others as mundane. This led him to embrace a morality and politics based on respect for free minds, free spirits, and free individuals. These traits are just as vital for this new century of globalization, in which our success will depend on our creativity, as they were for the beginning of the last century, when Einstein helped usher in the modern age.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 249
 A Fascinating Book About a Complex Person November 13, 2009
Zohar Laor (NJ USA)
I found this book fascinating and interesting, yet a bit more of a difficult read than Mr. Isaacson's biography of Benjamin Franklin. However, the author does a good job reconciling the physics genius with the rascally young ideologue and later with the icon we all think of when we hear the name "Einstein".
As in his other biographies, Isaacson brings forth wonderful little anecdotes through personal letters and stories which, I feel, let us separate the man from the myth and let us know what the man was truly like. The personal letters, quick wit and even tyrannical impulses let the reader understand this complex man as a man, not a pillar of the scientific community. Not only is the young Einstein a fascinating character, but the older one - the one who spent his life fighting authority only to become the authority - also comes alive.
As for science, this book is neither her nor there. If you understand some of the physics then it will be a nice review, if you don't then you won't understand it after finishing reading either. But that's not the point of the book anyway.
Personally I found the chapter about Einstein's religious beliefs fascinating and enlightening. If a few more people in the world feel like him, that science and religions are complimentary ("Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind") this world will be a more peaceful place.
Comprehensive. From an author who probably had an army of researchers, fact-checkers, professional reviewers November 11, 2009
Judge J Drhedd
The book is a well-researched and well-referenced biography. Walter Isaacson is the former Managing Editor of Time mag and CEO of CNN. (He's a distinguished biographer though even before he assumed many of these executive roles). His own fascination--bordering on idolatry--with Einstein is evident on the pages. Why bordering on idolatry? For one, I think the book's treatment on Einstein's first wife is unfair or not balanced. But save for this one minor quibble, the book is near perfect.
I can imagine that the author has an army of fact-checkers, archivists, and professional reviewers (Professors/Physicists) in the making of this book. The book benefited from these assets, evident up to the bibliography (for further reading). If you consider that the author probably paid for these services, the book should be a good buy, like a machine delivered after thorough R&D :-)
The first chapter until the part on Einstein's Miracle Year and formulation for General Relativity are remarkable. The arguments with Bohr and the delving into thought experiments are engrossing.
Chapters near the end (discussing politics and immigration to America) bored me a bit. This is probably not the fault of the book. This should be natural for most biographies formatted from birth death (not all decades will be full of excitement and achievement.
Then the Epilogue on the strange journey of Einstein brain--the literal chopped-up, stored in a jar, and ferried-in-a-pickup-truck brain--propped me up again for a fascinating ending.
In ending, if I may digress a bit, there are so many quotes and anecdotes that are attributed to Einstein by so many people with vested interests--like the one about Einstein as a kindergarten proving the existence of God as an absence of heat whatever (there's even a youtube video for this). This book more or less contains all of Einstein's snippets, aphorisms, 'quotable-quotes,' and surely all major milestones in his life. There are even lengthy discussions by the author on possible 'misquotes.' So if the quote or anecdote that youve heard is not in here, it's probably urban legend.
And on hindsight yes, you can even use this nonfiction bestseller as reference or even a semi-textbook for academic discussions. There are in-depth discussion on some topics on Theology, Pacifism, Physics, and Math.
Definitely worth anyone's money and time.
 Well-written, comprehensive review of Einstein's entire life November 3, 2009
Thomas A. Catalini (Boston, MA)
This is a very well-written and engaging review of Einstein's entire life. I found this to be an informative review of his impact on physics, explained in a way that was understandable and interesting to me as a layman. That's all well and good, but what made the book engaging for me was the presentation of Einstein the man, complete with all his flaws and very much in the context of the times in which he lived - through the first two world wars and the birth of the atomic bomb.
The story of Einstein's life is laid out in chronological order and reviews all the facts and figures, yet the feel of the book is far from dry and objective. The author clearly did a tremendous amount of research for this book and does a great job of peppering in details in all the right places.
Fantastic biography October 28, 2009
Lehigh History Student
Walter Issacson provides a readable and thorough account of Einstien's life. From his great scientific discoveries described in layman's terms (I have never taken a physics class in my life and easily understood the descriptions) to his personal life and what fame did to transform the way he lived. The details are well laid out and prove once again Issacson's mastery of biography. The theories that Issacson lay out are well thought out and provide insight into how Einstein came up with his ideas and conducted his famed thought experiments as the patent officer in Switzerland. Einstein while undoubtedly brilliant was enthralled by being an underdog and by academia not accepting him initially he was able to look past their old ways and conceive something new. The spare time at the patent office allowed him to conduct these experiments and provide theories that would shake theoretical physics to its core. Overall it is highly readable and well worth the time for those looking for a non traditional history book or those in physics who want to learn more about the man behind the relativity.
Great Read! Puts E=mc^2 to life! October 19, 2009
PhysicsDude
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson is an exceptional book. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. The book is an easy read but throughout the book it seems to jump around a lot and seems choppy at times because of the constant change in what is talked about. It is really good though because it allows a glimpse into the personal life of Einstein while still focusing on what made him a genius.
Going into the book I did not know much about Albert Einstein but the general "facts" that you almost always here as a kid growing up. I had always imagined Einstein as a person who was a loner and basically had no friends. That is all but the truth. I learned that Einstein did have friends, but in particular, he had very close friends. He selected his friends with great care. Also this book dispelled the legend that Einstein failed math as a child, but in fact he excelled at it. As a child he would obtain books from a medical student his family fed and would pick them apart and learn on his own, thus putting him far ahead in school in things like math and science.
Throughout his entire life he had an utter disdain for authority. That is how he was able to question the modern (during his time) findings of science and develop his own. Also, the experiments he performed through out his life were not the physical kind done in labs (which in fact he did not like to do in school because of the steps you had to follow) but rather performed them in his mind. That was really cool to find out. Also, Albert had a love of his life, though it never really worked out in the end.
Einstein's whole life was going against the grain and showing that not everything that may be truth right now necessarily is, but you need to work it out for yourself. Also, it shows that if you put your mind to something (literally in his case) then you can accomplish great things. After all, Einstein did drop out of high school, but went on to college
Again this is a great read and very interesting. It puts to life the equation E=mc2 by bringing to life the man behind it.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 249
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