Quest: The Evolution of a Scientist

by Leopold Infeld and Peter Infeld, Leopold, and Bergmann

A description of the author's collaboration with Albert Einstein in Princeton, and his journey from the ghetto in Cracow, Poland, to the universities in Lwow, Cambridge, Princeton and Toronto. Leopold Infeld was not only a scientist, but a fighter for world peace who was against his will forced to join the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War. He was also a loving husband and father, and a tireless promoter of young physicists starting...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0997904763
• ISBN13: 9780997904765
• Release Date: April 2020
• Publisher: Energy World Press
• Length: 420 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Quest: An Autobiography

Really enjoyed this autobiography by Leopold Infeld, especially how he relates how his career overlapped events of the early part of the twentieth century, both political and scientific. Purchased this book because I also enjoyed a book he coauthored with Albert Einstein which I thought was especially well written. Very clear writing style. Professor Infeld also discusses many of his personal feelings about events during his life. I never had heard of Professor Infield before reading the above book mentioned which he coauthored. Glad I do know of him now, as he has made important contributions to physics.

My favorite autobiography.

The author Infeld is a great writer; and he happens to also be a scientist. In addition to this book, Leopold Infeld wrote other captivating books, but this one stands out. He was one of the first scientists who sucessfully intertwined science with popular writing. The story starts with childhood dreams of escape from the Jewish Ghetto in Cracow, Poland, at the time of WWI. As the story progresses, Infeld matures and miraculously overcomes an incredible web of adversities that are stacked up against him. The narrative is personal and honest. Other books by Infeld include a biography "Whom the Gods Love", and "The Evolution of Physics", co-authored with Albert Einstein. Both books were bestsellers when they first appeared. I stumbled over this book "Quest" purely by accident: Started to read late in the evening, were immediately hooked, and I didn't put the book down until the end, at sunrise. Quest is also one of the books I return to periodically. There are several themes in the book: Anti-Semitism in Europe in the 1930ties, escape from Fascism, the upheavals of War, scientific work, and friendship, with Albert Einstein, McCarthyism, The Cold War. But more than all, it is a captivating drama, and written by one of the great story tellers. I am convinced that Infeld is less well known than he deserves to be.

Not what I expected, but very interesting

While in high school I read a few excerpts from "Quest" in a "physics reader"; they were all about Infeld's first meetings with Einstein and Dirac. They were written very well and made a strong impression on me at the time...The book is completely different from what I expected. The excerpts I had originally seen were practically the only ones of interest to anyone interested in the major players in early quantum mechanics or relativity theory. Most of the book is about his background as a Jew in Poland, first as a child in the ghetto, then as a physicist suffering terrible discrimination, and finally how he left Poland during the war, and was saved from the concentration camps in which his family members died.An epilog added some more history of which I was previously ignorant - why Infeld left Canada and went back to (communist) Poland.If you have read this far you probably think I was disappointed, but nothing could be further from the truth. Infeld writes so well, and the "gossip" is so carefully analyzed, that the book makes fascinating, thought-provoking, and often touching, reading. For example, the story of how Infeld, although Jewish, was granted a "docentship" (something like an assistant lecturer) is at the same time incredible but understandable to anyone who has been involved in "politics" of this sort.I waited 30 years to read this book, and found it to be completely different from what I expected; but I finished it in two sittings and can't recommend it highly enough.