Albert Einstein: A Biography Paperback – May 1, 1998

It's one of the most interessant books I have ever read. A walk into Einstein's genius from his childhood till the late years. Well written.

My first foray into the life of Einstein in any depth and well rewarded with a very solid bio. A mix of science and 'actual' life this was an engrossing tale. Perhaps the most amazing was to discover his very early productivity at the Zurich Patent Office. This was when he produced the theory of Special Relativity in 1905 in his famous paper 'On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies' which is far earlier than I might have guessed. There are several chapters devoted to the science entirely around that period which are very good but perhaps not best way to approach the subject if you are quite unfamiliar with it. His later resistance to the ideas of quantum mechanics in the 1920s was also very interesting as it required an abandonment of a more elegant solution which he never found. But like many great scientists his best work and ideas were as a very young man and the rest of his life (and the book) sort of devolves into describing his celebrity life and political ideas which were nothing short of silly at times. Yes, be a pacifist unless and until there are really bad guys around threatening to exterminate you. Luckily, his cherished Israel did not adopt his ideas on that subject.

I consider Einstein to be the greatest scientist to have lived.
Folsing's biography of him is not the one you want to read.

First its length, 850 pages plus is not necessary and burdensome on the reader.
Then Folsing falls into what I call "The Einstein worship mode," not correctly presenting some "facts" contained in the book.

Start with the Foreword, page xi," "His (Einstein's) concepts of space and time, of the 'forth dimension,' and of a finite but unbounded universe in which light travels along a curved path, are regarded as revolutionary, comparable, in their effect on human understanding, only to those of Copernicus."
I agree with this statement except that it was not Einstein who came up with the core of these ideas, although Einstein did "develop" these ideas between 1907 and 1915. These ideas came from the B. Riemann, in his 1854 inaugural lecture, see p.72 "The Physicist's Conception of Nature," (1973), Jagdish Mehra, Ed., et. al. See also "non-euclidian geometry" and B. Riemann.

Then on page 392: "Basically, Einstein, in this paper, (1916), derived all the characteristics for the definition of the photon- ...".
"The term 'photon' for the Planck/Einstein light quantum was introduced by Gilbert Lewis in 1926. See "MacMillan Encyclopedia of Physics," (1996), Vol. 3, page 1185. Einstein did not even use the term "photon." Details perhaps, but to me important in a biography.

Here are some other Einstein biographies; Brain's, Pais' (both books), and Neffe's are recommended:

"Einstein- A life," by Denis Brain. This biography (1996) of Einstein is the one to read. It explains Einstein's nuisances, e.g. his dislike of his mother effecting his relationships with women; and his opportunism; Chapter 19, "The Uncertainty Principle" is a classic- Einstein's bugboo in the last 30 odd years of his life, et. al.
As Richard Wolfson, who wrote "Simply Einstein," (2003), which is the best book to understand Relativity, wrote in the "Further Readings" of his book re: about "Einstein: A Life,":
"A modern and thoroughly candid account of Einstein's life, among the first to exploit the Einstein Archives and Einstein documents made widely available in the 1980's." If you are going to read one biography of Einstein, this is it.

Abraham Pais' "Subtle is the Lord... The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein" (1982,) provides a scientific discussion of Einstein's work, which is difficult, but also provides good incites into Einstein as Pais worked with him. This book is worth reading but you are going to have to plow through some parts of it due to the physics. See also Pais' "Einstein lived here," (1994), which presents a completely different view of Einstein from his earlier "Subtle is the Lord," book. Both are worth reading.

Jurgen Neffe's "Einstein" (2005), English translation (2007), provides a grittier biography of Einstein and is worth reading.

Ronald W. Clark's "Einstein: The Life and Times" (1971), provides just that, a discussion of Einstein and his life and times, providing a more broad stroke to the times of and Einstein the man.

This is the BEST biography of Einstein that I have read. The writing style is 'European' in that all dimensions of Einstein are explored and referenced. A strong point of this biography is the extensive research and documentation that backs up the text. Einstein's life in science AND out of it are explored thoroughly. My only quibble is that the quality of pictures in the text is shoddy. I have the Penguin edition. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. If you want a quick superficial biography try Banesh Hoffman's Einstein (still in print?). If you want a fairly good biography I recommend Denis Brian's Einstein. If you want a very precise and detail biography get this one and enjoy!

Years ago I read a biography of Einstein by Clark, back in the seventies, and I thought I knew everything about this intellectual hero that I wanted to.

But Folsing really has fleshed out Albert for us. Not only a leftist and a paradoxical pacifist (as I'd already learned), but a devotee of Spinoza and a dreadfully active ladies' man.