Einstein And Our World: Control of Nature

by David C. Cassidy

Born in Germany during the imperial era in 1879, Albert Einstein died seventy-six years later in Princeton, New Jersey, one decade after the defeat of Nazi Germany and the dropping of the first atomic bombs on Japan.

While most available works on Einstein trace the origins and evolution of Einstein’s views and theories, Einstein and Our World, by award-winning science historian, educator, and Einstein scholar David C. Cassidy, provides a fascinating account of the impact of Einstein’s work and outlook upon contemporary culture and upon the scientific enterprise itself.

Following a brief, nontechnical explanation of the significance of Einstein’s achievements, Prof. Cassidy takes the reader on an intriguing journey through the uses and abuses of Einstein’s relativity theory in such widely diverse settings as political ideology, philosophy of science, literature, art, religion, and the individual in an age of dictatorship, genocide, and weapons of mass destruction. Cassidy explores how Einstein’s work spread throughout the physical sciences, leading to a new conception of the theoretical physicist as both physicist and cultural figure. While public fascination with Einstein’s achievements grew, his authority as an influential spokesman for human dignity, intellectual freedom, and world peace continued to the end of his life.

This new edition, besides updating and revising the content of the first edition, includes a number of important new topics that could not be included in the original edition: more on Einstein’s personal life in the light of recent revelations; a new section on Einstein and peace; and an assessment of Einstein’s continuing influence in the post-September 11 era.

Genres: History, Science

162 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

David is an award-winning author, the twisted mind behind several chilling books of horror and suspense. A busy little bee, this Canadian writer is also an accomplished photographer and Photoshop wiz—and a half-decent juggler. An avid amateur astronomer, he loves the night sky, chasing the stars with a telescope. Sometimes he eats.

Reviews

[adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short book is supposed to cover Einstein’s impact on our world, outside of the things we know about in science and technology.

We all know about the genius of relativity and quantum mechanics. We all know about the Manhattan Project. We all know how science has evolved since 1905 since Einstein’s miracle year, about the quest for Grand Unification Theories, the expansion of the universe, black holes, and on and on and on. There are so many books out there on the life of Einstein, the science of Einstein, the Cold War political impacts of the Atomic Bomb.

This book was supposed to capture the story that’s less well known: how Einstein’s science and humanity impacted society and culture, in art, poetry, philosophy, politics. It is here where the book fails. The author gets so caught up in writing his own version of Einstein that he only leaves 13 pages for the meat of this project. This book left me wanting so much more.

[Liquidlasagna]

I believe the 1994 edition was 100 pages, and the new edition here is 162 pages

"This new edition, besides updating and revising the content of the first edition, includes a number of important new topics that could not be included in the original edition: more on Einstein's personal life in the light of recent revelations; a new section on Einstein and peace; and an assessment of Einstein's continuing influence..."

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book, putting Einstein’s major theories into a historical context and examining both the scientific and cultural consequences.

[Summer Seeds · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have said it before, and I will say it again! I do not understand physics at all. The math makes sense, but the theoretical concepts behind the math? Nope. I have no idea what I just read.