Customer Reviews

Einstein: A Biography

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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.

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 contributed when he deserted his commendable WWI pacifism for war advocacy before and during WWII, for building the atomic bomb, etc. which cements a framework in which mass murder is maximized. Later in life he regretted having affirmed the atomic bomb and expiated commendably through his reviving pacifism and warnings re nuclear catastrophies.

Neffe carries the story further after Einstein's move to the U.S. and the brilliant physicist's unsuccessful and relentless efforts to forge a unified theory combining cosmological macro and micro events. He recounts how Einstein was temporarily neglected and forgotten but eventually revived. After WWII, Einstein correctly fathomed that the U.S. was "drunk on power" and becoming militarized a la Germany and sure enough he was confronted with being outcast, spied upon, defamed, maligned and shunted. The FBI had a massive dossier, much of it based upon material from the Women Patriot organization which attempted to prevent his immigration. On the other hand, Einstein was not beyond inviting some of his criticism to the point of having more letters criticizing him coming from Jewish sources who were worried about his excessive radicalism causing a backlash. He defended the Rosenbergs as he had defended Adler. Neffe points out that Einstein admired Lenin, had his living quarters used for Soviet spying and, according to his physician, may have died from an abdominal aortal aneurism caused by weakening due to syphilis.
The story is carried forward into the present with scientific updating on how Einstein's work, having been revived, contributed to laser, digital cameras, among other products and how quantum research, string research, etc. are being expanded by scientists around the world such as Anton Zeilinger in Vienna.

Neffe's Einstein appears to have been a womanizer with plenty of lovers including a Russian spy and a N.Y. dancer, among others. He did not always treat his first wife nor his lovers with courtesy. There were illegitimate children and the fate of his first wife, Mileva, is nothing but tragic to the point of portraying Einstein as being somewhat misogynistic. Neffe provides a balanced view as he does with all events. Those interested in finding out how female researchers contributed to the major breakthroughs can find some satisfaction in Mileva' role and the brief mentioning of others female scientists who actually came either close to what Einstein discovered or were making major contribution to atomic research. Einstein's first wife could be cited as could Lisa Meitner, Ida Naddock, etc.. On balance, this is a riveting biography of a brilliant scientist living in a turbulent period.

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.

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.

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 achievements in these areas were significant enough that a normal physicist would be happy to have them be his life's achievement. It made me wonder what he could have accomplished if he had not wasted his most fruitful decades working on something more significant and promising than the unified theory.

One reservation about the book is that if found myself getting tired with the man in the last 200 pages. I think this was because, the end of his life was not nearly as exciting as the beginning, and although he was an fascinating man, he life was not interesting enough to keep me interested for almost 500 pages.

This is the English translation of a book written by a German Scientist (but not a physicist). It is not a traditional linear chronological biography. Rather than being strictly chronological it follows the arc of Einstein's life, but does so in terms of its different aspects, with an emphasis on Einstein's human interactions. Thus, the prologue starts the book with Einstein's death and autopsy and then the first chapter jumps back to 1919, with Einstein's ascent into the realm of greatness. The subsequent chapters then go back further to his early life and the development of the physics that was to make him a household name. While roughly chronological, the focus is on topics such as his psychological makeup, his relationship with women, etc, but does this by jumping around in time. For instance, it covers his relationship with this first wife, Mileva, then it discusses his relationship with his second wife, Elsa, but this is done before discussing the intervening years. This approach is fine if you know something about Einstein's life, but I do not think it is the best approach if one is new to this subject.

I did find a lot of new information in this book. For instance, there was an excellent discussion of his father and uncle's electrical business and how this gave him a very practical underpinning for his further theoretical work. There is also an excellent discussion (not provided in any of the other Einstein biographies that I have read) of how his adolescent introduction to science through Aaron Bernstein's series "Popular Books on Natural Science", and how this shaped his thinking and provided valuable insights that he would use for the rest of his life. Neffe's discussion of special relativity is quite general, but nonetheless clear, as is the discussion of Einstein's work on Brownian motion and critical opalescence (why the sky is blue). I particularly liked the discussion of the evolution of general relativity. It combined a nice explanation of the theory with a detailed discussion of the process by which Einstein developed it. It also described the newly discovered galleys for David Hilbert's paper on general relativity, which shows that Einstein clearly did not steal the final general relativity equation from Hilbert, if anything it was Hilbert who got it from Einstein's previous presentation to the Prussian Academy. The last major physics chapter deals with his contributions to quantum mechanics, which I found to be the least detailed or interesting. Finally, the book deals with Einstein's Berlin and American periods and is more political and sociological than physics oriented.

All in all, this is a very good book for someone who has previously read a more conventional, chronological, biography of Einstein. This book adds a lot of interesting details that are overlooked in many other books. However, I do not think that this is a very good choice as a "first" Einstein biography, and for this reason, while I liked the book I cannot give it five stars.

The opening chapter is the key to opening EINSTEIN by Jurgen Neffe. The vivid prose describes Thomas Harvey's autopsy of Albert Einstein's brain. Harvey basically steals the brain in which "he (Harvey) is certain, lies the key to understanding the greatest intellectual creative power." The chapter stands as a metaphor for Neffe's literary dissection of Einstein's psychological and rational mind.

I suppose that when I chose Jurgen Neffe's book, I anticipated a more standard biography. I possibly expected a narrative of Einstein's life. Instead, Neffe's meticulously researched take on Einstein delves into the man's thinking processes for his scientific research. Neffe similarly attempts to get into Einstein's mind concerning his personal relationships with wives, children, mistresses, colleagues, and the world in general.

The following sentence appears on the front flap of the jacket: "Neffe offers a fresh portrait of the man behind the myth . . . in clear and accessible prose." I'm not certain "clear and accessible prose" is completely applicable here. Meticulous is a better adjective to describe the author's writing style. Possibly minutiae is a second adjective.

It appears that Neffe left no letter unturned in his research. Einstein's scientific journals, notebooks and papers were apparently scoured for insights. When discussing Einstein's relationships with his family, Neffe does not create a chronological path of events. This approach tends to get a reader lost in a time warp of letter excerpts. As Neffe analyzes Einstein's scientific thought processes, the mathematical-physics challenged reader becomes embroiled in moving trains, falling elevators, spacetime,speed of light, deflection, and mathematical formulas. This thought is not to detract from Neffe's work. The biography is a much more enlightening approach than Harvey's autopsy to understanding the genius of the man.

Shelley Frisch translates EINSTEIN: A BIOGRAPHY and provides a new portrait of the physicist in a very different approach to Einstein's life and work. New documents - including a series of letters from Einstein to his sons - provide a richer psychological portrait of the genius and goes beyond the usual focus on his science alone (though plenty of science is included in the course of discussions), making this a pick not just for science collections but for any general holding interested in Einstein's life.