Einstein: The Life and Times [Paperback]

Ronald W. Clark (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 10, 2007

Ronald W. Clark's acclaimed biography of Einstein, the Promethean figure of our age, goes behind the phenomenal intellect to reveal the human side of the legendary absent-minded professor who confidently claimed that space and time were not what they seemed.

Here is the classic portrait of the scientist and the man: the boy growing up in the Swiss Alps, the young man caught in an unhappy first marriage, the passionate pacifist who agonized over making the Bomb, the indifferent Zionist asked to head the Israeli state, and the physicist who believed in God.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A fascinating description of the career and substance of a genius. -- Christian Science Monitor

"A nonscientific reader will gain a real and imaginative impression of Einsteinian physicsA remarkable feat. Read the book. It is well worth it." -- C.P. Snow, Life

"An adventure of the intellect, challenging and absorbing." -- Vancouver Sun

"Applauded for its precision as well as its perception." -- Chicago Tribune

"Clark not only brings Einstein alive, but also the scientific and intellectual issues." -- Los Angeles Times

"Encyclopedic! Vivid and readable." -- New York Times Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Born in London, Ronald W. Clark (1918–1987) spent three years researching and writing Einstein: The Life and Times. Among his other works are The Huxleys; JBS (the biography of biologist J. B. S. Haldane); The Life of Bertrand Russell; Freud: The Man and the Cause; and The Greatest Power on Earth: The International Race for Supremacy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 896 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (April 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061351849
• ISBN-13: 978-0061351846
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #409,834 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book about a great man..... September 13, 2000

By Craig Chalquist, PhD, author of TERRAPSYCHOLOGY and DEEP CALIFORNIA

Format:Mass Market Paperback

This gem is not only well-researched and clearly written; it is a deeply moving overview of the life of the world's greatest scientist, not just as a theoretical physicist, but as a human being struggling to be true to himself in trying times.

Although Clark does explain a bit about special and general relativity, he does so only to aid one's understanding of why Einstein's contributions were so crucial. You will see Einstein as a curious boy, as a troubled student, as a young man making his way in the world, and then as a post office clerk who worked on physics when his bosses weren't looking.

You will see the tide slowly turn as physicists of his day began to take this uncredentialled but highly original thinker seriously. And then the day dawns when an experiment proves that gravity indeed bends light....and Einstein wakes up famous.

The book is also full of those charming anecdotes one loves to hear about Einstein, ever the absent-minded professor and "dropper of conversational bricks," such as the performance in which, armed with a violin but off rhythm, the greatest living physicist is chided by the director: "Einstein, can't you count?"

What comes through best is Einstein as a great-hearted and humble man who wanted "to know God's thoughts"; a man of conscience troubled by the wars and other injustices of his time and (unlike most of us) actively trying to do something productive about them; and most of all, a profound man whose central mood, known to every child but never to be outgrown in the inwardly alive adult, was his loving awe of the unknown.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Gives you keen insight into a remarkable man January 6, 2002

By Dr. Lee D. Carlson HALL OF FAMEVINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

This is probably the most widely read biography on Einstein and with good reason: the author does a fine job of detailing the life of the man who pretty much dominated 20th century physics. It is a cliche now to say that his theories changed the way physicists think about the natural world, and his demeanor and politics continue to be the rage in so-called popular culture. Young students of physics usually get their first taste of advanced mathematical formalism when being introduced to his general theory of relativity, and the author, even though he is not a physics educator, actually does a decent job of explaining the concepts that Einstein was responsible for in his life work. The author does not leave out the politics of the man who continues to be known for his Zionism, and the reader will finish the book with an appreciation of the complexity of his thinking and his personal adherences to this point of view. Some readers may be perplexed on his associaton with the mustard gas researchers Walther Nernst and Fritz Haber, but put in context, as the author does with clarity, readers will see the reasons for this along with Einstein's commitment to the development of atomic weapons.

The author also conveys the excitement surrounding the experimental confirmation of some of Einstein's theories, particularly the photoelectric effect and the bending of the light around the Sun. In addition, the reader can appreciate more the concern among many physicists at the time of Einstein's use of "high-brow" mathematics in general theory of relativity. Now of course, such concern has definitely subsided, for today's theories of gravitation are laden with highly estoric constructions from mathematics. Einstein, as the author notes, was very young when he developed his theories. Modern theories of gravitation, such as superstring and M-theories require such a high level of mathematics that physicists who make contributions in these theories generally spend many years obtaining this background. It is interesting to reflect on how Einstein would have reacted to these theories and elementary particles physics. It is also interesting to ask whether Einstein's politics would be the same if he were alive today, given the current situation in the Middle East. In addition, computers were not available to Einstein in the way there are now to all physicists. Would Einstein have taken to computers? To computational physics? His general theory of relativity is now one of the main applications of high performance computing and symbolic programming.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great biographies of all time September 23, 2005

By Bomojaz

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Whenever they compile the list of the best biographies of the 20th Century, this book will definitely be on the short list. It's a masterpiece. Clark presents a thorough, erudite, and accessible account of Einstein's life and work. He begins by relating Einstein's early struggles and his years at the Swiss Patent Office, where he read and analyzed technical reports. Then came the great relativity theory and the subsequent success and reknown. The flight from Nazi Germany to Princeton, the building of the atomic bomb during WW II (he regretted this association the most in his life), and the myths that developed around his life with the public (he hated the public adulation; when he died he didn't want his house on Mercer Street in Princeton to become a shrine) also get their fair and judicious treatment. Einstein was a great scientist who had developed some of the most complicated theories in physics, and Clark is excellent in trying to explain them for the general reader. But he is best when capturing Einstein the man. Clark writes with the confidence of a master, even majestically. It's a long book and not a fast read, but the time spent with Clark and his magnificent subject is time very well spent. One even wishes for more at the end. A brilliant work.