Einstein: The Life and Times

by Ronald W. Clark

THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY

Albert Einstein was far more than the physicist who confidently claimed that space and time were not what they seemed to be. Middle age saw the man who described himself as "pas très Juif" blossoming out as a standard-bearer for Zionism. He passionately indulged in pacifism, and as passionately rejected it when Hitler began to show, unbelievably to most reasonable men, that he really meant what he said about the Jews and the master race. Throughout it all, Einstein stuck to the job at hand, as determined to squeeze the next fact out of Nature as a businessman intent on turning millions into billions.

Ronald W. Clark has drawn an extraordinarily moving portrait of a man who was one of the great tragic figures of our time. It is the picture of a man who while still young abandoned much of life with the passion of the convinced monastic, and who was thrust back into it by the unobliging pressures of history. And in science the greatest physicist of three centuries, or possibly of them all, found himself after middle age pushed by the advance of quantum mechanics into a backwater, "a genuine old museum-piece," as he himself wrote.

The life of Albert Einstein has been brought into brilliant focus by Ronald W. Clark's deeply significant and compassionate biography. Mr. Clark has drawn on a immense amount of new material. But he has never lost sight of the man who was one of the greatest contradictions of out times: the German who hated the Germans; the pacifist who changed his mind; the ambivalent Zionist who was asked to head the Israeli state; the physicist who believed in God.

Genres: Biography, Science, Nonfiction, History, Physics, Biography Memoir, Memoir

880 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[JBedient · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't believe all the reviews about this book being mediocre - I got to take two minutes out of my day to stand tall for my man RWC!

If you're thinking of reading a book about Einstein I wholeheartedly recommend this one.

I really enjoyed this thing back when I was a young man in my early twenties trying to understand the world. I savored it and read it chapter by chapter, day by day, on the bus to and from this death-dealing manual labor job I despised - it saved my brain! Clark's writing style is more than adequate as biographers go, and he covers a lot of bases: Einstein's childhood and development into an unspectacular young man; his theories and the subsequent backlashes and accolades they received; his relationship to the world as a celebrated genius; his death and legacy - you get the whole shebang. If anybody knows of a more accurate and all-encompassing bio of Einstein please let me know.

I just found this the other day at a yard sale for a dime! Going to see if it really was as good as I remembered it. A part of me doesn't want to reread it for fear of ruining that magical feeling it gave me back on that bus...

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Alright, finally finished it... not as life changing or earth shattering as it was when I was 22 but still packs a wallop with its scope and breath on Einstein. Still highly recommended...

[Pooja Kashyap · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best biographies, I have read so far, although I had to re-read some of Einstein’s concepts to make myself clear for the next move. The progression from one part to the other is like moving a higher level with respect to Einstein’s journey and getting to know more of him at personal level.

Before reading this book, I have always wondered had Einstein not discovered the theory of relativity, what would have happened to physics. But the answer wasn’t too difficult to find, there would have been an ether theory revolving around the same principle. And this would have come to the fore somewhere around the mid twentieth century unlike the beginning of the century, which is the present case.

Brownian motion and theory of relativity were in rudimentary in quantum mechanics Einstein helped them reach shore.

At the same time, there are invaluable and breakthrough contributions like ‘photon paper’ and the ‘duality of quantum mechanical wave-particle’. His contemporaries Bohr, Schrodinger, DeBroglie and Heisenberg together might have reached the latter’s conclusion but (I’m sure) not alone.

Einstein’s life since the very beginning, his hatred towards Germany, his work in Switzerland and then academics in Germany again, his family leniency towards religions & spirituality, his love for physics, his journey during world wars & inclination towards Zionism in later years of life is all majestically ingrained by the author.

In addition, Clark did a fantastic job in explaining the most complex theories in physics for laypersons like meself, his involvement in politics and his role in the invention of atomic bomb.

Prior to his death in late 1954, Einstein summarized his feelings about his role in the creation of the atomic bomb: "I made one great mistake in my life... when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justification - the danger that the Germans would make them."

Unlike the books that I have read so for, this is the second one that is not a fast read, first being Dawkins’ The God Delusion.

Overall, an exemplary work done by Ronald W. Clark in introducing us to the life and world of man with the most phenomenal intellect Albert Einstein.

[Julio On Hiatus · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I spent several hours discussing the Theory of Relativity with Einstein and I think he finally understands it". ---Chaim Weizmann, President of the Zionist Congress, speaking to reporters in New York City. When the Old Man, Der Alte, died in 1955, an innovative American newspaper cartoonist drew a picture of a small planet with a yard sign on it that read EINSTEIN LIVED HERE. If you think that is a exaggeration consider that in 1905, at the age of 26, an unknown clerk at the Swiss Patent Office in Zurich had elaborated the Special Theory of Relativity, which replaced Newton's Clockwork mechanical universe with one where time and space, velocity and distance are all relative to the frame of reference of the observer. (Believe it or not, E=MC squared was an annotation to this Theory!) Einstein had killed off Newton's laws and Newton's God! Before the age of thirty Albert had moved on to the General Theory of Relativity, proving, inter alia, that gravity bent light, nothing could surpass the speed of light and space and time became a fourth dimension, space-time. The queer thing is that Einstein's two Theories constitute a case of the formula being more intelligent that the formula maker (or Einstein being more of a prophet than he realized). Having broken up time and space, he refused for the rest of his life to accept quantum physics where indeterminancy, not universal laws, is king. Big Al did not believe in the existence of Black Holes or the Red Shift either until Edwin Hubble, using the Mt. Wilson Telescope in California, showed him both in person. Einstein's last twenty-five years, at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, were wasted on a fruitless effort to combine the laws of gravity and electromagnetism, or Unified Field Theory, still missing in action today. Ronald Clark's masterful biography is one third Einstein the physicist, one third pacifist and one third Zionist. Einstein was a great human being, but there is no need for Clark to remind us of this every ten pages. Still, this book will astonish you in revealing how one lonely man was able to discover the laws that govern the universe, past, present and future. There is no corner of the universe where Einsteinism is not true.

[Jim Townsend · Rating 5 out of 5]

The "definitive biography" of one of the most famous scientists who ever lived is detailed and well-researched. Though a scientific genius and a nice man, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) had his prejudices, hated Germany, was the prototype of the "absent-minded professor" more comfortable with things than with people, and generally disdained anyone not in his inner circle (though he loved children). A very fair biography, exposing Einstein's faults and mistakes as well as lauding his brilliant mind and ethical principles.

[Clif · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a joy to find a masterful writer. Ronald Clark brings both the subject of his book and the period within which Einstein lived to life. I'm excited to see that he has also written bios of Bertrand Russell and Ben Franklin.

As any good biographer should, Clark is after all aspects of Einstein's character and is not out to confirm the man's place on a pedestal. Einstein himself hated the public adulation he received, though he treasured the high estimation with which his fellow physicists held him.

A man obsessed, Einstein never took a break from his life-long thought project. Even his family took a distant second place. His home life was one of constant attendance by a doting wife who took care of the tiniest details so that he could be left free to sit, ponder and make notations.

As Clark so deftly portrays, Einstein was a man of contrasts - a German who repudiated Germany, yet whose last words in life were in German, a pacifist who urged work on atomic fission for a weapon, a Zionist who was uneasy at the idea of a Jewish nation with the imperative of power, and a thinker who was able to see space and time in a new way yet could never accept the statistical basis of the quantum world.

The period from his birth in 1879 until his death in the 1955 saw the end of empires and, thanks to him, a revolution in the way the world is understood by science. Clark's explanation of special and general relativity is crystal clear. The reader can easily understand the impact of Einstein's discovery because it is so lucidly placed within the scientific thinking that came before and after it.

A wonderful read

[Ronald Lett · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a wonderful gift from a good friend.
Unfortunately, the author is trapped in the hero worship of their time period, and several times has let this lead them astray into unmerited defamation of supporting characters around Einstein, and a completely unwarranted character assassination of Mileva Marić. If you seek an accurate source for the history of relativity and the objective contributions of the scientists of this period, I would disrecommend this book as a resource.
I have added correctional notes in the margins for any unsuspecting future readers that may not have multiple sources on the people of this time period to compare; one of the only times vandalizing a book has improved its potentially damagingly erroneous content.

[Sallie Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography of Einstein transformed him from a famous scientist to a real man who lived, breathed and followed his heart for me.

[Celia Sánchez · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The story is simply that when the boy was five, ill in bed, his father showed him a pocket compass. What impressed the child was that since the iron needle always pointed in the same direction, whichever way the case was turned, it must be acted upon by something that existed in space--the space that had always been considered empty.”(pg.29)...
The first spark of intrest in science for einstein ....

Clark moves away from a strict chronological biography. Rather he breaks up the subsequent chapters by Einstein's three major undertakings - physics, Zionism, and pacificism. ...The physics part is not elaborate... while the details of his life are of course important, I felt that his scientific and philosophical ideas were only discussed superficially. (even though he does an adequate job of putting into layman's terms the basics of Einstein's theories )..If you want to know about his researches and thoeries i would recommend Einstein: His Life and Universe Yet I really enjoyed reading this work and learned quite a few interesting tidbits about the great scientist I hadn't yet known. ....

[Relstuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Einstein was a remarkable man. I was aware of this and knew his reputation as a brilliant scientist who postulated the theory of reletivity.

But there was more to the man than this. There are three main things in his life he dedicated himself to. Science was his greatest love, followed by pacifisim, and Zionism.

WWI deeply affected Einstein. He saw his brother scientists turn their minds to creating better ways to kill their fellowmen and it disturbed him. After WWI he spent a great deal of time and effort arguing for mutal disarment and made speeches encouraging the men in Europe to refuse to serve in the military and if drafted to refuse to serve. There was a lot of support for this type of thinking in the years between the world wars and there was a great number of people who could not fathom another world war or even major military conflict ever taking place in Europe.

Einstein made speaches, lent his name to groups, and wrote in support of a pacivistic viewpoint. After the rise of Hiter, the dispelling of Jews from professional engagement in education and science in Germany, and the rise of military might in Germany Einstien changed his mind and believed that military service was appropriate and that Hiter and Germany had to be stopped using violence.

Most people know that he was somehow involved with the atomic bomb. He did not work directly on the project but he acted to initiate the project by sending a letter to president Roosevelt about the research that was going on that could produce a prodigious explosion bigger than any so far achieved. He was concerned that the Germany military might develop it first and gain a disturbing advantage over the allies. While he probably knew from conversations with scientists involved in the actual development of the bomb, and contributed some brain power to solving some issues, he did not participate directly nor was he given security clearence to do so.

In the years after WWII he sated he regretted sending the letter.


The persecution of the Jews in Germany drove Einstein to embrace his Jewish roots. One fact I found interesting was that as Jews were being driven from their educational posts in Germany books written by Jews, even those who had lived their whole lives in Germany and never learned Hewbrew had their books marked "translated from Hebrew" so that the German public would know that the ideas in the book were probably rubbish based on the race of the author.

Even before the war Einstein worked with other Jews in establishing Jewish higher education in what was to become Israel. He helped raise funds for the Jewish people there and later, for displaced German Jewish academics as they were being driven out of Germany.

At the passing of the first prime minister of Israel his name was suggested as a suitable replacement. He declined citing his age and health as good reasons for his action.

Einstein never stopped working on his scientific research. While his most earthmoving theory was postulated in his earlier age he continued thinking and proposing ideas about how the universe worked until he passed away.

You cannot understand Einstein unless you understand that a major part of what made him tick was his belief in the importance of the empowering of the individual when it comes to self education and actualization. Einstein had a terrible time in school at a younger age. The highly regimented classroom and typical German instruction methods were something he resented and spoke against for the rest of his life. His ability to come up with the theory of reletivity was related to his ability to think outside the box of conventional ways of looking at the universe. When it comes to discipline modern American schools are nothing like German schools. However, I wonder if he would disapprove of the cookie cutter approach we take to education? I suspect not.

A note on religion, it seems Einstein is quoted by everyone who is for, against, or unsure whether God exists. He commented on an accusation that he was a godless communist once and advised that he believed in God, a view he repeated on many occaisions, but later clarified that he did not have any sort of relationship with a personal God. He was a theist but it does not appear that there is evidience that would support an argument that he was a devout Christian, Catholic, Jew, or practicing member of another religion. I suppose because people view him as such a brilliant person that his opinion lends credibility to what you think about the existance of God if it agrees with what you believe.

I felt the author did a good job of not stooping to hagiography, did a decent job of explaining the theory of relativity in a way that allowed me to understand what he was talking about, and the significant effect that the theory had on the world of science. I felt like I understood to a decent degree the man behind the accomplishments and some of the things that made him tick. Overall this book was lengthy, seemed to cover the subject well, and seemed to maintain a good tone relating to the main character, and drew from many sources to create a picture of a brilliant life.

[Dan Bimrose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seemed to be an honest and thorough recounting of Einstein’s life. Fascinating life. He was a mountain of a man.

[Ricco · Rating 5 out of 5]

A man of contradictions and naiveté

[J.D. Steens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this more for the physics pieces than the biographical information, though I got into the latter more than I intended. It’s hard not to think of the book as the definitive biography on Einstein. Trying to put some of this together:

The speed of light, filled with implications for Einstein (1), seems to be the driving force behind the special and general theories of relativity. In contrast to Newtonian physics (fixed space, eternal time; a stage to move on, in “normal” time), Einstein described movement through space and time that approximated the speed of light, and he concluded that space and time were variable and relative concepts. As I understand it, for example, a fixed unit of time measuring motion (thus, distance) is one thing in the Newtonian world, but it is quite another at C, the speed of light, where the distance for, say, one second, is vastly greater. In the reverse, the time to cover a fixed distance (space) is vastly different for a Newtonian than it is for one who dwells in Einstein’s world. In the realm of C, space and time can only be flexible concepts. (2)

Einstein’s next looked at the effect of gravity on variable spacetime, looking for an alternative explanation for Newton's "action at a distance" that he, Newton, saw as gravity. That couldn't work for Einstein because light had a finite speed that could be measured. With that, he concluded that there could not be "simultaneity," as Newton's explanation implied.

Space, Einstein saw, is distinctly neither flat nor square (i.e. Euclidian). Rather, gravity curves it. Bodies, whose inertial mass has them going in a straight line, now follow curved lines toward the more massive bodies that have created “gravitational wells.” (3) As straight-line inertial motion is modified by spacetime curvature, and as spacetime is filled with massive bodies and energy, there is then perpetual and universal movement, always relative to other bodies, flowing along lines of the curvature. Seen this way, is gravity a force at all? Are Newtonian “pulling” and "gravitational attraction" artifact words? Isn't “gravity” just the effect of concentrated mass depressing spacetime (and is gravity, really, just another word for mass?), whereby straight-line inertial motion becomes curved motion?

But curvature (geometric) causation begs the question: Why does matter form in ways to depress spacetime if not for gravity? Is it that particles/objects move toward and into each other to form the heavy center of mass/energy that then builds upon itself to become “gravitational mass,” which deforms/depresses the plane of spacetime? If so, matter simply follows spacetime curvature into gravitational singularities that bring all movement, locally, to a halt, or bring objects back toward itself when they try to move counter to the gravitational center.

Clark says of Einstein that gravitational mass is congealed energy and that light, lying at energy’s opposite pole, is the pure energy of movement. (4) Thus, is it fair to say that cosmic reality consists of concentrated energy (gravitational mass) and free energy (massless [no rest mass] photons) and that these two poles of energy constitute Total Energy? And, isn’t energy’s essence movement, both in place (stable atoms and gravitational “rest” mass) and within or on the fabric of spacetime? Now, reality’s picture is that of a vast gravitational and energetic field of interacting energy and matter, moving on and across an eternally wavy spacetime.

Extending the logic of spacetime curvature and the place of gravitational mass and light within it, doesn’t matter and free energy move toward centers of mass and energy, with mass being degrees of energetic content, the most concentrated of which (5) are neutron stars, or pre-big bang scenarios, where all particle differentiation is squeezed into non-existence, leaving nothing behind but energy’s essence which is, of course, what? Compressed neutrons; cosmic foam; plasma; vibratory strings?

Is it reasonable to speculate that all curved cosmic movement returns back to itself under a big bang-like scenario of extreme curvature of concentrated energy-matter? But it is not really “contraction,” a reeling back in, but rather a continuance of straight-line motion through curved spacetime, and a return to itself, to form a new singularity of sorts and big bang scenarios repeat, forever and ever. (6)

Forever and ever is time; a singularity is space, or a lack thereof; and a released singularity is spacetime. But none of what Einstein came up with addresses the question of the beginning. What started this movement? Who or what was or is the prime mover? Is there a creator or not? Clark hints that Einstein was in the Deist camp – something got this deterministic ball rolling as the ultimate source of movement. But, as Spencer (more than anyone else) observed about the existence of God or prime mover, the answer is forever beyond our reach. This cannot be known.

1. Einstein according to Clark, said: ‘“For the rest of my life I want to reflect on what light is.’”

2. Poincare,, when looking at “all the dimensions of the universe,” stated that “the concept of space “is relative to the frame of reference within which its distances were measured.’” Regarding the frame of reference, it is one thing for an earth-bound observer and another thing for one moving close to the speed of light.

A news article, interpreting Einstein’s theory at the time it came out, stated: “The ideals of Aristotle and Euclid and Newton which are the basis of our present conceptions prove in fact not to correspond with what can be observed in the fabric of the universe….Space is merely a relation between two sets of data, and an infinite number of times may coexist. Here and there, past and present, are relative, not absolute, and change according to the ordinates and coordinates selected.”

Space - the distance between objects and their interactions, as measured by time (via C, given the vastness involved) – was also a real, autonomous entity for Einstein. Space was a field of energy of interacting particles, objects and energy waves (hence, the meaning of the “fabric” of spacetime terminology; Clark quotes Einstein’s reference to space as “cloth”).

3. If the combo of relative (size) and kinetic mass (speed) is sufficient, equilibrium is expressed through stabilized orbits. If not, the larger mass incorporates the lesser mass.

4. He writes that, for Einstein, “All mass was merely congealed energy; all energy merely liberated matter. Thus the photons, or light quanta,..were just particles which had shed their mass and were traveling with the speed of light in in the form of energy; while energy below the speed of light had been transformed by its slowing down, a transformation which had had the effect of congealing it into matter.” Again, later, Clark adds that matter for Einstein “was really congealed energy, while light quanta, or photons, consisted of particles which had changed their mass in the process of reaching the speed of light.”

Light is energy that is free of (rest) mass, thus “massless” in that sense, but it possesses the mass of kinetic energy, resulting in speed-of-light movement. For gravitational mass, is this the energy that is locked up via a strong force in the nucleus, or locked up in atoms via the electro-magnetic force? Seen this way, isn’t gravitational mass a bundle of such energies, concentrated by spacetime curvature, which itself, curvature, not gravity, acting on bundles of concentrated energy, is the causative force for movement?

Also, this is another way that illustrates non-fixed spacetime: The measure to time is space is longer when curved by gravitational mass than when there’s no curvature. On a global surface, the shortest flight path for an airline is not a straight line but a geodesic line.

5. By Rutherford, “showing that the atom consisted largely of empty space, [he] had thereby opened up the possibility of superdense stars in which subatomic particles were squeezed together in a concentration unknown on earth.”

6. “[I]n the ‘Einstein world,’ as it soon became known, the curvature produced by matter turned space back on itself so that a ray of light, moving in a straight line in terrestrial terms, would return to its starting point after circling the universe….”

[Bryan Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't particularly care for Clark's writing style. It tended to be longwinded and was filled with too much innuendo. While such a comment could simply be a matter of preference, I do have another, more concrete criticism. After Einstein becomes famous in the late 1910's, Clark moves away from a strict chronological biography. Rather he breaks up the subsequent chapters by Einstein's three major undertakings - physics, Zionism, and pacificism. By doing this, the book jumps around and becomes hard to follow.

All that said, Clark's biography is comprehensive and well-researched. Morevoer, I think he does an adequate job of putting into layman's terms the basics of Einstein's theories which is no small task.

All in all, I have to believe that there is another Einstein biography out there that is just a cut above this one.

[Wendy]

So I gave up and decided to not finish this book. I just couldn't get into it. While it was definitely not the worst book I ever read, I have learned my lesson from the bad books, and that is if I am not enjoying a book, I have permission to quit!

While I did like learning about his life (which is why I started the book) I was bored by the in depth discussion of various scientific theories. Maybe I would have been more into this book had I read it in college when all that information was interesting and current to me, but now - not so much.

[Chaunceton Bird · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a well-written exposition of Einstein's life and theories. Many of the sentences, and even some paragraphs, are written in passive voice, and there are more block quotes than I've ever experienced in a book before. Mr. Clark's research is clearly thorough and he does well to synthesize the information into a modest length biography.

[Sanah · Rating 2 out of 5]

extremely, extremely dreary book. very, very dull, but nevertheless gave a clear and complete look at einstein's life from his days as a schoolboy to the theory of relativity.

[Brandon Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very thorough read.

[Puwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nature's testament is to reveal some of the naturalities to the world by some extradentary talent characters. In that, Albert Einstein is an inevitable personality, as reflected in my review. With a rapidly growth number of historians of science and discovery, Einstein’s knowledge and theory carry his fingertips, and his works highly influence today’s modern science. I am a project management professional, my primary view is free thinking which develops a strong rope to the achievement of the basic principle. The free imagination of Einstein lies in today’s legacy which provides powerful direction for today's and tomorrow’s epistemology.

The renowned biographist and author Ronald Clark has written about “The man who deals with his own brain” Einstein is a masterpiece of his informative work. The paradoxical logic will be a lack of diligence, but finding solutions for paradox is the real diligence of an individual for mankind in the science marathon. As a reader, I realized that Einstein created his own independent environment to convert his imagination into reality and succeeded. Many wait for an opportunity but few create opportunities and succeed, Einstein is a creator and he says “the opportunity to think about physics” and he warned us to have our own interests, we can do what we like. The author mentioned one interesting point the clash between Einstein and Weber, who disliked the young Einstein addressing him as “Herr Weber” instead of “Herr Professor”, It is a complexity of human attitude, in Weber Fechner law related to “human perception”. However, it’s little risky in questioning Einstein because it’s in his blood.

During World War II there was a nuclear marathon. USA to the possibility realistically perceived, as it turned out, and in Europe Germany working out the combined research on nuclear fission work on scientific principles. The author correctly points out the effect of Einstein’s letter referring to the research in the US and Britain. This is clearly focusing on the nuclear age at any rate. Public attitude and interest are enough to worry about the armament race and this mad marathon will lead the world to hazardous. Nuclear became a significant element of military power. The idea of the illustration of the book kept Einstein away from politics but these defeats and tried to overrule Einstein’s works in the public and politics for good or bad. Perhaps the understanding of a person’s life and character in a biography will be a paradox in real, but as a reader what I understand is that the biography is an animated version and it focuses on only the transient detail therefore, the readers are compelled to have a significant knowledge to convert into the constant detail.

The time came to receive the Nobel Prize in 1922, once he accomplished his enormous contribution to the physics world and also made prouder his intellectual ancestors’ scientists who are not his personal family members but the members of the physics family. Though the book is not easy for reading and quite a big untired reading the author did a great job in explaining the most complex theories in physics for non-physicists like me, Einstein’s level playing theory contributed to the invention of the atomic bomb and that played a vital role in the world politics. This is the second book that I have read about Einstein, unlike the books that I have read so far, the author's overall contribution with exemplary for us to understand the life and world of man with E=MC2. Thanks a lot to my friend/colleague Yasodhara Kapuge for lending me the most phenomenal book.

[Hendra Putra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I found it really interesting because this book does not only describes the personal life of Einstein but also elaborates his achievement in the Physics world. I think I gain significant knowledge about Relativity from this book, at least now I understand the kinematic time dilation (Special Relativity) and gravitational time dilation (General Relativity). He predicts that the light would be bent by gravity. He also predicts the shift in Mercurius orbit due to the immense gravity near the sun. Not only that, but any background theory about relativity is also well explained such as Newton's theory about gravity.

I think this is the first time I really understand that most of the famous scientist that I know from my science class is living in the same era as Einstein such as Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Henri Poincare, Wilhelm Röntgen, Lord Rayleigh, Werner Heisenberg, Enrico Fermi, Edwin Hubble, J.J. Thomson, Max Born, Fritz Haber, and many more. Some of them, of course, were already old during Einstein's relativity era. Even some of them were able to witness their theory debated by the younger scientist.

In the last 5 years, I involve in the engineering and design of Ammonia and Hydrogen plants. It involves a haber-bosch process, which is found by Haber. He won a noble prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention. But from this book I also understand that he joined the German military during World War I, he developed and weaponized chlorine and other poisonous gases. He is a proud german, very loyal German, he was a Jew, then convert to Christian. His conversion to Christianity could not save him from the atrocity of Hitler, he then flees the country, the country that he loves so much, he join the military because of German, he use his brilliant mind for military purposes, he give so much to Germany but at the end, a drop of Jewish blood is enough for Hitler to destroy all of his legacies.

This book is developed from the correspondence between Einstein and other scientists. Thus from there, we all can understand what is his opinion physics world and also the current political situation. His life had presented a series of unexpected contradictions. His work in the Patent office had been hoisted him into the academic life. He hate everything about German, he drop his German citizenship when he was 17 years old, but he still accepted the job as director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin later in his life. He wants a quiet life but after the experimental proof (by Eddington) of his theory that the light des bend due to the gravity of the sun, he becomes the most famous living scientist. He is a pacifist, but he also support the development of the atomic bomb by his letter to President Roosevelt which kill 120,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

And don't forget, he almost became the second president of Israel.

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed Ronald W. Clark’s in-depth biography of Einstein's often dehumanized life. Starting with an in-depth view of Einstein's humble childhood, Clark goes on to describe his religious and academically challenging schools years. We get to see the creative side of Einstein that is often lost in the sea of mathematics and science. Moving on to his young adulthood we see his struggles of the complexity of his research but the blossoming of his curiosity and discoveries. Clark also tells of his complicated love and children in a very grounding way. One of the aspects of Clark’s biography that I most enjoy is his explanation of Einstein’s career in a way that brings Einstein closer to the average person. To conclude the biography, Clark presents Einstein’s legacy rather than an abrupt ending to his life.
As I did enjoy the overall concept and template of this book, I found Clark’s writing to be long winded and difficult to get into. Though I have no problem with this, others could have found the in-depth explanations of Einstein’s theories to be boring and a bit irrelevant.
The offensive content I found within this book was brought up through the mention of Hitler’s evil doings and Einstein’s death.
I think that the part of this book that I most enjoyed was the detail Clark showed Einstein’s life and the humanization of an otherwise dehumanized icon.
“The story is simply that when the boy was five, ill in bed, his father showed him a pocket compass. What impressed the child was that since the iron needle always pointed in the same direction, whichever way the case was turned, it must be acted upon by something that existed in space--the space that had always been considered empty.”(pg.29) I love this excerpt because it shows Einstein’s first spark of interest in what will someday become the basis of one of his infamous theories.
“As far as the U.S manufacture of the hydrogen bomb was concerned, Einstein’s honesty combined with his common sense to limit his effectiveness”(pg.719) This excerpt shows that even with his brain power and abilities, his common sense and goodness would limit his contribution to the making of a catastrophic bomb.

[Cindy Wiedemer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took forever to get through. it was small print and over 700 pages. add into it the portions of science and math that are well above my ability to comprehend however, it never occurred to me to not finish it (I always finish every book, but sometimes I ponder stopping) the thought never occurred to me. it was interesting and beyond details and very, very thorough, possibly more than necessary. I knew almost nothing about Einstein before reading this book, and now I can't at all say the same. a detail from birth to death and everything in between. the last two chapters, especially the second last discussing his impact on the creation, building, and ultimate dropping of nuclear weapons, felt a bit forced. did he have so much power to persuade others that a single letter truly changed the course of not only the war but the future of humans I terms of warfare and weapons? did he know what he wasn't supposed to know but did well to keep it hidden? seems out of the personality the book dives so far into. I'd recommend this book to anyone curious about Einstein. However, there are newer published books that likely go further on his impact on science into more recent scientific research. if you can get past the length, it is a great book.

[T JB · Rating 2 out of 5]

While there is a ton of great information to learn from this book (especially if you come into it with little knowledge of Einstein like myself), I found the time hops and attention to the most minor detail very cumbersome throughout the nearly 2 months it took me to get through it.

The pros of this book are some personal details, memorable quotes and overall historical and geographic context of a man of Einstein’s stature. I especially enjoyed reading about his life before and after the peak of his fame where you realize that his often divisive personality stayed consistent throughout his life.

The cons are the fact that the average reader will struggle to progress through the countless names, dates and details that time jump in a way that is often difficult to follow.

Overall this may be worth a read for those who have more context about Einsteins scientific impact and want to dive deeper into his scientific thought process, but for those focused more on the man and his impact in broader terms, there may be better options available.

[Ozella · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work on Einstein's life is, to say the least, exhaustive. But don't mistake that for a criticism. All the major periods in Einstein' s life are intricately detailed, and it has obviously been researched extensively. Certain parts do tend to drag on and come off as a bit drab, but on the whole this is an immensely readable account. I understand that this is first and foremost a biography, but my main criticism is that it was almost too biographical. What I mean is that while the details of his life are of course important, I felt that his scientific and philosophical ideas were only discussed superficially. Being that those ideas were so important to his life and career, I think it would have been welcome and appropriate to give them a more penetrating treatment. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed reading this work and learned quite a few interesting tidbits about the great scientist I hadn't yet known.

[Mike Blackwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gets far too caught up in trivialities, such as where Einstein lectured on which day, who he met where, and etc. The book attempts to be organized both chronologically and thematically, which just leads to a great deal of repetition, as we find out Einstein's opinions on the same topics over and over, and relive the same events. If you need to know everything about the guy, this is the book for you, but I'm certain there are much more pleasant & condensed biographies out there. I just happened to find this one for a few dollars at a used book store.

[சுயேபெர் SuJéBṚ Joshy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Einstein's life given to the minute detail. This is really a classic. Those who are the upcoming sceintists must read this to have a value embedded research and utility. I have benefitted a lot as an academician and a man from this book.

[Saravanan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the life during difficult phases how he sailed and life wasn't that much easy for him. The struggle and his preservence exhibited, based on this nature selected him to change the history of science.

[Ahmed Eid · Rating 3 out of 5]

good

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too dry. Couldn't finish it

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love anything on Einstein

[Rana Abdullah]

I want to read this book because I want to know about The great ALBERT EINSTEIN completely