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Einstein:: The Life and Times Mass Market Paperback – January 1, 2001

4.3 out of 5 stars 22 customer reviews

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Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 880 pages
  • Publisher: Avon (January 1, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 038001159X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0380011599
  • Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,526,780 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

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.
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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.
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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.
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Format: Mass Market Paperback
This book is an excellent documentary record as far as the details are concerned, and a good read. Einstein is not presented as a demigod or absent-minded genius, but as a simple human being who liked his job. Clark penetrates Einstein's mind and environment well. A friend and myself, both young wide-eyed scientists, even found it inspiring -- but don't let that put you off.
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Format: Mass Market Paperback
This is a well- written account of the life of Einstein. It also provides explanations for the general reader of Einstein's great and revolutionary contributions to mankind's understanding of the physical world.

It gives the picture of how one person from relatively humble origins rose to become the very symbol of human genius, and a cultural hero of mankind.

It presents a picture of a more complicated human being by far than is contained by the popular image. It is the picture of a person of enormous dedication, of a startling power to devise in his own mind ' thought- experiments' that would lead to changing completely mankind's conceptions not only of the world but of its own powers.

It is the the story of Einstein's reluctant political involvements, his devotion to peace, his great humanism, his Zionism and contribution to the building of Hebrew University, his opposition to Fascism, his famous letter to President Roosevelt that pushed the Chicago project for building the Atom bomb, his torments of conscience over his discoveries having been used in war.

Most importantly it traces the scientific career of Einstein including the legendary moment of great triumph in 1919 when his general theory of Relativity was experimentally confirmed, and Einstein transformed overnight into a world- famous figure.

It also tells the story of Einstein's struggle for over thirty- five years throughout the whole latter part of his life to devise a unified field theory .
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