Einstein: A Biography

By Jürgen Neffe

Book Overview

Albert Einstein is an icon of the twentieth century. Born in Ulm, Germany, in 1879, he is most famous for his theory of relativity. He also made enormous contributions to quantum mechanics and cosmology, and for his work he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921. A self-pronounced pacifist, humanist, and, late in his life, democratic socialist, Einstein was also deeply concerned with the social impact of his discoveries. ? Much of Einstein's life is shrouded in legend. From popular images and advertisements to various works of theater and fiction, he has come to signify so many things. In Einstein: A Biography , J?rgen Neffe presents a clear and probing portrait of the man behind the myth. Unearthing new documents, including a series of previously unknown letters from Einstein to his sons, which shed new light on his role as a father, Neffe paints a rich portrait of the tumultuous years in which Einstein lived and worked. And with a background in the sciences, he describes and contextualizes Einstein's enormous contributions to our scientific legacy. ? Einstein , a breakout bestseller in Germany, is sure to be a classic biography of the man and proverbial genius who has been called "the brain of the [twentieth] century."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374146640
• ISBN13: 9780374146641
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.7" x 1.7" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Time well spent

This is far from your average biography. To begin with, the narrative is not chronological. The author holds Einstein like a jewel and exposes him one facet at a time. It is a nontraditional approach to a unique man. But it works. The reader is left to put the parts together and it reveals a complex person like anyone, and unlike anyone ever. Also unique in this book is the access the author provides to the science -- yesterday's, today's and tomorrow's. He doesn't just translate complex ideas into accessible forms, which he does wonderfully, but he displays these achievements and failures in their full historical, social and political context as well. That alone is worth the price of the book. Finally, this wonderful book is the product of a German writer (and a translator whose work is wonderfully transparent). Being European gives this scientist/author comfortable access to other European scientists (something that is often a challenge to US science writers). His European roots enhance the analysis of the influences of antisemitism, Nazism and McCarthyism on Einstein. Time with this book is well spent.

Interesting Man

Neffe's biography is the best I've read this year. It is well researched with clear and lucid writing. It covers almost every area of Einstein's life - personal, scientific, political and religious. It diverges into the man's successes and his failures. Einstein was not just a fascinating man; the times and places he lived made him an even more interesting. He lived at a time of great scientific advancement, saw the rise of German nationalism and its outcome - WWI, the depression of pre-world war II Germany, the rise of Nazism, WWII and the formation of the state of Israel. All of these events shaped Einstein in some way and a few of them he even played a part in shaping. The author does not paint a hagiographical portrait of Einstein but one where the man is revealed with all his warts. Einstein was not what you would call a moral man. He impregnated is first wife while engaged, married her against his parents' wishes, gave up their first child and then he left her after and his only son, although he did financially support them for the rest of their lives. He then married his cousin and spent the rest of his marriage cheating on her. Einstein was also a practical (or some would say inconsistent) pacifist. He was against the production and use of military arms but supported the destruction of Nazi Germany. He even supported the construction and use of the Atom bomb although his only involvement was sending a letter to Roosevelt on behalf of Leo Szilard in support of the Manhattan project. Since he was denied a security clearance due to his pacifist beliefs the letter was the only role he played in the project. He even worked for the U.S. Navy to help them develop torpedoes. A couple things about the book: First the science if this book lost me. I am a math major and have studied physics but I was completely lost on the 90% of the technical explanations in the book. This did not detract from the work, but I had hoped I could understand it. One thing that surprised me was that in his early days he was a rather attractive man, well dressed, witty, charming and quite popular with ladies. This is much different from the unkempt, rumpled image most of us are use to seeing of him in his later years. Also, I knew Einstein was brilliant but I had no idea what a genius he was. His most astounding discoveries were made while a Swiss patent clerk and were done before he was 30 years old. When he developed the Theory of Relativity it was so complex that only a few men could understand it and it was decades before any of it could actually be tested. One of the unfortunate aspects of his professional life was the decades he wasted trying to formulate the unified theory. At the end of his life he was seen as sort of an old quack by the a generation of physicists because of the time he spent pursuing this theoretical dead end. Neffe states that there were other areas of physics that Einstein dabbled in from time to time and his ach

a grand man of science pitched about by politics and personal shortcomings

Drawing from a wide variety of globally dispersed primary documentary sources as well as personal recollections, Neffe's bio is engaging, tragic, amusing and highly informative. And Frisch's translation seems perfect and makes for smooth reading. Neffe synthesizes Einstein's lifetime scientific achievements and anchors them into a broader scientific framework. Simultaneously, he also presents Einstein's personal experiences and the political and social context in which he evolved, in which he tried to mediate, though often unsuccessfully, if not provocatively. Having already made lots of observations re electro-technical workings in his parents business, Einstein absorbed even more of the same as a technical expert working in the Swiss patent office. Contrary to the myth, he was a top student from the beginning though rebellious against the widespread discipline inflicted on students of his era. What emerges is a highly talented person endowed with a lifelong intense curiosity and obsession with finding answers to what falsely may appear as childlike questions----all qualities necessary for profound breakthroughs which cannot be achieved without what many would call an infantile curiosity and grinding obsession. Neffe frequently points out Einstein's boyish humor, which lasted to the end, as well as his stubborn defense of his interests in carrying on his research to the point of damaging familial and personal relations. With the necessary aid and carried on the shoulders of mathematicians and scientists who pushed research and knowledge already close to breakthroughs, Einstein formulated his special theory of relativity in 1905, the year of miracles. There is the sine quo non of reciprocal ratcheting, the constant intense interaction, at times almost offensively so, between competing talented researchers who submit ideas, concepts, equations and publications, etc., to which others react, criticize if not modify. This is the process in which Einstein dwelled, to which he made first-rate contributions and from which he benefited. And this is what produced his general theory of relativity which was then verified in 1919, his year of glory and which was followed up with the Nobel Prize in '22, though not for the theory of relativity. A commendable pacifist during World War I and a consistent life-long anti-militarist except for WWII, Einstein, seemingly like an unruly teenager, defended Friedrich Adler, his former housemate who assassinated the Austrian Premier, von Stuergkh, in '16. He correctly, though with some detachment at first, observed the post-war turmoil in Germany with its rising anti-Semitism, visited the U.S. where he ironically advised fellow Zionists amidst thunderous applause to "follow the leader", an ironic answer to what the emerging Nazis were doing which sort of manifests itself as the political equivalent of the scientific reciprocal ratcheting which becomes eventually catastrophic and to which Einstein unwittingly contri

insights into Einstein's life and work

This is an excellent biography of Albert Einstein, whom Neffe considers "...one of the greatest men in the history of the world...." In addition to special and general relativity (including how these ideas developed in his mind), there is very good coverage of Einstein's contributions to quantum physics, including the photoelectric effect, the duality of light, Bose-Einstein statistics and condensates, stimulated emission, and the EPR paradox. Neffe explains how Einstein's work in relativity and quantum physics is influencing research in physics today. There is the interesting story of how East Germany (GDR) honored Einstein by renovating his vacation home in Caputh and of the woman--a former art teacher--who was hired by the GDR in 1979 to be its caretaker and who continued in that role after German reunification. The biography also covers Einstein's private life as well as problems caused by anti-Semitism both in Germany and in the U.S., where his humanitarian concerns in the latter also caused difficulties. This comprehensive biography should by read by anyone with an interest in Einstein, science, or human civilization.

Einstein: A Biography

Very well written, excellent translation fro German. Neffe gained access to many new documents and letters previously hiddedn in archives. Science very accessible to a general reader.