EINSTEIN --- HIS LIFE AND UNIVERSE by Walter Isaacson. Simon & Schuster, 2007
INTRODUCTION (Online)
This book examines the remarkable life of Einstein who was a German-Jewish schoolboy. He excelled in math and mastered calculus before he was 15. His dislike for rote learning when he was in school led him to compare his teachers to military drill sergeants. The book shows how his scientific imagination sprang from his rebellious nature, which is a testament to the connection between creativity and freedom. These traits are just as vital for the 21st century of globalization as they were for the beginning of the 20th century.
How did Einstein's mind work? What made him a genius?
Based on newly released personal letters of Einstein (1879–1955), this book explores how Einstein, who was an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk and a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn't get a teaching job or a doctorate, became 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 that grew out of the context of world political events, including WWI and II and their aftermath through the Cold War.
The book notes Einstein's debt to Hume, Planck, and other philosphers such as Kant in helping develop both his world view and his breakthroughs in science. It describes Einstein's efforts to understand space and time, which resulted in four extraordinary papers in 1905 that introduced the world to special relativity. His fifth paper on "unified field theory" was written for the general reader without equations.
The book covers Einstein's support for the development of the atomic bomb and how he later regretted the atomic bombing that occurred in Japan during World War II. When he created his famous equation, E=MC squared, he never imagined that it would be used for mass destruction. He was conflicted over his role in the development of the atomic bomb. He felt both responsible for and guilty over his role, which caused him to lead the effort to create a world government that would prevent individual nations from using atomic bombs in the future.
In addition, the book addresses some of the contradictions of the man of peace who contributed and supported war. It shows that while Einstein had his absolute convictions, they could sometimes shift depending on the circumstances. He was charismatic and passionate and outspoken and unapologetic about his belief that no one should have to give up personal freedoms to support a state.
Fifty years after his death, this book reminds us why Einstein remains one of the most celebrated figures of the 20th century. The book portrays the flawed but brilliant human being at the core of all that brainpower. You can't understand the real world without understanding how Einstein's philosophy and scientific theories and love of individual and intellectual freedom changed the world forever.
1) The light-beam rider (p)
2) Childhood, 1879-1896 (p)
3) The Zurich Polytechnic, 1896-1900 (p)
4) The lovers, 1900-1904 (p)
5) The miracle year --- quanta and molecules, 1905 (p)
6) Special relativity, 1905 (p)
7) The happiest thought, 1906-1909 (p)
8) The wandering professor, 1909-1914 (p)
9) General relativity, 1911-1915 (p)
10) Divorce, 1916-1919 (p)
11) Einstein's universe, 1916-1919 (p)
12) Fame, 1919 (p)
13) The wandering zionist, 1920-1921 (p)
14) Nobel laureate, 1921-1927 (p)
15) Unified field theories, 1923-1931 (p)
16) Turning fifty, 1929-1931 (p)
17) Einstein's god (p)
18) The refugee, 1932-1933 (p)
19) America, 1933-1939 (p)
20) Quantum entanglement, 1935 (p)
21) The bomb, 1939-1945 (p)
22) One-worlder, 1945-1948 (p)
23) Landmark, 1948-1953 (p)
24) Red scare, 1951-1954 (p)
25) The end, 1955 (p)
EPILOGUE --- Einstein's brain and Einstein's mind (p)
INDEX (p521-539)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR (p541)
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