The Invisible Century: Einstein, Freud and the Search for Hidden Universes [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Richard Panek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 31, 2004

The Invisible Century is an original look at two of the most important revolutions—and revolutionaries—of the modern era. This dual biography of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud— and their parallel journeys of discovery that altered forever our understanding of the very nature of reality. Einstein and Freud were the foremost figures in search of the next level of scientific knowledge—evidence we can’t see. Here on the frontier of the invisible, their investigations reached unprecedented realms—relativity and the unconscious—and spawned the creation of two new sciences, cosmology and psychoanalysis. Together they have allowed us for more than a hundred years to explore previously unimaginable universes without and within.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Veteran science writer Panek's pairing of the dual icons Einstein and Freud, whose labors were in widely disparate fields, is both natural and inspired. He uses his formidable writing skills to illuminate two of the 20th century's most notable accomplishments, the theory of general relativity and the discovery of the unconscious, weaving them into an informative and interesting history of the scientific method. Panek's explanation of Einstein's theory of relativity is excellent, and readers will with pleasure understand this counterintuitive concept. He is equally good at describing how Freud developed his theory of the unconscious. Panek also describes how the two rejected the 19th-century scientific paradigm, which held that the more accurate measurement of physical aspects of the universe would unravel its secrets. As Panek (Seeing and Believing) states, "...Einstein and Freud wound up venturing where their contemporaries did not because at a certain point, they didn't investigate. They thought. They reconceived the problem." Besides providing valuable biographical detail about both Freud and Einstein, Panek demonstrates a wide-ranging knowledge of the development of scientific thought and philosophy, as well as the major developments in both cosmology and the study of human anatomy. There is a remarkable amount of information in this short book, and Panek's valuable thesis—that the triumph of 20th-century science was the discovery of the invisible workings of the universe and ourselves—is well made.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Scientific American

A less likely pairing emerges in this book--Einstein and Sigmund Freud. Although they met just once and didn't know what to make of each other's work, Einstein and Freud became the foremost proponents of research on the frontier of the invisible, the search for the next level of scientific data--evidence we can't see.

Editors of Scientific American --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 258 pages
• Publisher: Viking (May 31, 2004)
• ISBN-10: 0670030740
• ASIN: B00080W3O8
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,907,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant and intoxicating, May 17, 2005

By 

George DeMark (Chicago, Ill.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Invisible Century: Einstein, Freud, and the Search for Hidden Universes (Hardcover)

I'm very careful about what science (or math. or anything that's not MBA) that I read, because usually these texts are dry, boring to the point of What's the Point? Why would an author write a book that seems to deliberately set out to lose readers is my question. But The Invisible Century is one of those extremely rare books (Bill Bryson's Short History of the World is the only other one in recent memory I can think of) that is not just fascinating, but also fascinatingly written, and that makes some extremely difficult ideas -- Einstein's theory's of relativy, hello? -- almost thrillingly understandable. I put down this book, and for the first time felt I understand what Einstein was driving at. Ditto went for Freud's theory of the unconscious.

Panek's amazing point (kind of profound, when you think about it) is that Einstein began probing the heavens at the same time Freud began experimenting with his theories of the unconsicous -- that basically both men (who did meet once, acc. to Panek!), were after the secrets that lay behind invisible screens -- Einstein the sky, and what lay beyond it, and Freud our dreamworld and our id. Really fascinating stuff.

Now as a topic, none of this is easy sledding. But it's RIchard Panek's great gift to make these profound contributions by two of the towering geniuses of the last century into something succinct, intriguing, readable, and easy-to-understand, while never patronizing the reader, or lapsing back into over-intellectual science talk. Except for the Bryson book, I didn't think there was such a thing as a science book I could not put down. But this is one. Buy The Invisible Century right now! You'll be glad you did!

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting comparative study, May 4, 2011

By 

Librum "6nomad9" (CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Invisible Century: Einstein, Freud, and the Search for Hidden Universes (Paperback)

Well, not so much a 'study' per se as an extended meditation on science, imagination, and the history of both in which Einstein and Freud serve as exemplars. Those critiques of TIC which take issue with its seeming elevation of Freud to a status, as theorist, on par with that of Einstein are, I think, mistaking Panek's intention. Though it is true that Panek has little to say about the empirical shortcomings of Freud's project (though not nothing altogether), he is quite right, I think, to see in Freud's project the same seeds of creativity and motivated truth seeking that propelled Einstein's own work. Panek's point is not that Freud was a scientist like Einstein was a scientist, but that both were representative of their time and similar in some important ways. Panek does a very nice job of establishing who these seminal figures were, what they did, and why, and why the life/work of one sheds light on that of the other. Less one star for a certain degree of redundancy in the writing.

4.0 out of 5 stars Very accessible, March 7, 2011

By 

C. Klafter - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Invisible Century: Einstein, Freud, and the Search for Hidden Universes (Paperback)

Panek is very good at describing and explaining technical topics at the intelligent-layman level. This book and his "4% Universe" can actually give you a decent understanding of cosmology and the link to particle physics without the burden of having to know mathematics! 4% Universe would be a nice history introduction to a physics or astronomy student, but is not the place for finding actual technical data. The Invisible Century is also a very good high-level description of how modern science and scentific theory evolved from earlier scientific and pre-scientific thinking and analysis. The Einstein and Freud stories are discussed in parallel and you will be able to see how the combination of mathematical prediction and reproducible experiments distinguished the field of modern physics from psychoanalysis. This is also seen in the 4% Universe, as cosmology evolves from "just talk" to math and experiment-based science.