Product Details
Simon & Schuster, April 2007
Hardcover, 704 pages
ISBN-10: 0743264738
ISBN-13: 9780743264730
Description
How did Einstein's mind work? What made him a genius? Isaacson's biography shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. His fascinating story is a testament to the connection between creativity and freedom.
Based on the newly released personal letters of Albert Einstein, Walter Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk -- a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn't get a teaching job or a doctorate -- became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos, 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.
These traits are just as vital for this new century of globalization, in which our success will depend on our creativity, as they were for the beginning of the last century, when Einstein helped usher in the modern age.
"Isaacson has managed the extraordinary feat of preserving Einstein's monumental stature while at the same time bringing him to such vivid life that we come to feel as if he could be walking in our midst."
-- Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals
"This book does an amazing job getting the science right and the man revealed."
-- Sylvester James Gates, Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland
"This book will be widely and deservedly admired. It is excellently readable and combines the personal and the scientific aspects of Einstein's life in a graceful way."
-- Gerald Holton, Professor of Physics at Harvard and author of Einstein, History, and Other Passions
"Once again Walter Isaacson has produced a most valuable biography of a great man about whom much has already been written. It helps that he has had access to important new material. He met the challenge of dealing with his subject as a human being and describing profound ideas in physics. His biography is a pleasure to read and makes the great physicist come alive."
-- Murray Gell-Mann, winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics and author of The Quark and the Jaguar
"With unmatched narrative skill, Isaacson has managed the extraordinary feat of preserving Einstein's monumental stature while at the same time bringing him to such vivid life that we come to feel as if he could be walking in our midst. This is a terrific work."
-- Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
"Isaacson's treatment of Einstein's scientific work is excellent: accurate, complete, and just the right level of detail for the general reader. Taking advantage of the wealth of recently uncovered historical material, he has produced the most readable biography of Einstein yet."
-- A. Douglas Stone, Professor of Physics at Yale
"This is a brilliant intellectual tapestry -- and a great read. Skillfully weaving Einstein's revolutionary scientific achievements, his prolific political initiatives, his complex personal life, and his fascinating personality, Isaacson has transformed the transformer of the twentieth century into a beacon for the twenty-first century."
-- Martin J. Sherwin, coauthor of American Prometheus:The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for biography
"I found so much to admire; there are many places where I just had to cheer what Isaacson had written."
-- Dudley Herschbach, Professor of Science at Harvard
"Isaacson has written a crisp, engaging, and refreshing biography, one that beautifully masters the historical literature and offers many new insights into Einstein's work and life."
-- Diana Kormos Buchwald, General Editor of the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein
"Isaacson has admirably succeeded in weaving together the complex threads of Einstein's personal and scientific life to paint a superb portrait."
-- Arthur I. Miller, author of Einstein, Picasso
"Isaacson has done a remarkable job conveying a sense of Einstein the man and also the fine details of his science."
-- Lawrence M. Krauss, Professor of Physics at Case Western Reserve and author of Hiding in the Mirror
American Spectator, September 17, 2009
...SOMETHING TELLS ME THAT MY NEW BOOK -- Questioning Einstein: Is Relativity Necessary? -- is unlikely to be reviewed. So I shall say something about it here. I have been working on it on and off for years, and it ...
WBRZ, July 31, 2009
...Toole died in 1984. Theres another Louisiana connection in In Characters Grit issue a marvelous piece on Albert Einstein by former New Orleans resident and Einstein biographer Walter Isaacson. Isaacson makes the point that Einstein succeeded ...
The Jewish Week, June 17, 2009
...Home> The Arts > Books Staff Writer The day after Albert Einstein died, on April 18, 1955, The New York Times? obituary included a small but critical section describing his involvement with Israel, a country ?whose establishment as a state ...
Walter Isaacson's Books
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American SketchesBy bestselling biographer and journalist, a selective collection that illustrates his passage from school to journalist to illustrious biographer.Read More -
A Benjamin Franklin ReaderBENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S GREATEST WRITINGSEdited and Annotated by Walter IsaacsonSelected and annotated by the author of the acclaimed Benjamin Franklin: An...Read More
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Benjamin FranklinIn his New York Times bestselling biography, Walter Isaacson shows how the most fascinating founding father helped define our national character.Read More
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The Wise MenA captivating blend of personal biography and public drama, The Wise Men introduces the original best and brightest, leaders whose outsized...Read More
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