Will I love Einstein?

Albert Einstein transformed our understanding of reality. In 1905 alone, the annus mirabilis, he published four different papers that were going to shake up the foundation of physics. But who was the man behind the special and general theories of relativity? The man who, albeit a genius, could not find a job as a professor in Switzerland because he was Jewish? The man who wrote a contract that forbade his wife from being in the kitchen when he was there? The man who married his cousin?

If you want to find out Einstein’s life story and what made him… show more.

Some of life’s greatest adventures, triumphs, and disasters are intellectual (which is why I compare Albert Einstein to Hannibal in my own book). As a young iconoclast, Einstein completely blew up the conventional wisdom in science. He found a new way of thinking about gravity, time, space, light, and the whole universe. Being eccentric, he came to embody our notions about the mad scientist. As a human being, he could be endearing but also cruel—it’s not clear whether he ever met, or cared about, his disabled daughter Lieserl. But the most intriguing lesson of his life to me… show more.

This is without question the essential book on Einstein. Isaacson has such a dynamic voice that even though it is non-fiction, it reads like a novel. This is a remarkable accomplishment since the book does not sacrifice detail for narrative pace. Isaacson is brilliant at re-creating the joy of scientific discovery, for with his liberal use of Einstein's correspondence, you feel as if you are with Einstein sharing his excitement. Isaacson is also a master at explaining the science—he simplifies the mathematics, without losing the implications and importance of Einstein's theories.

Walter Isaacson may well be America’s pre-eminent biographer. Einstein: His Life and Universe is a powerful book that leaves no stone unturned in providing an understanding of the motivation and methods of this extraordinary scientist. It also provides the foundation for my book. 

There is both depth and feeling in Walter Isaacson’s biography. The reader comes away with an understanding and appreciation of how a patent clerk, whom no physicists wanted to work with, managed to find, through his vision and persistence, answers to the most challenging and complex scientific problems of his day. It is a great story.