Albert Einstein : a biography
Albrecht Fölsing, Ewald Osers (Translator)
Albert Einstein's achievements are not just milestones in the history of science; decades ago they became an integral part of the twentieth-century world in which we live. Like no other modern physicist he altered and expanded our understanding of nature. Like few other scholars, he stood fully in the public eye. In a world changing with dramatic rapidity, he embodied the role of the scientist by personal example. Albrecht Folsing, relying on previously unknown sources and letters, brings Einstein's "genius" into focus. Whereas former biographies, written in the tradition of the history of science, seem to describe a heroic Einstein who fell to earth from heaven, Folsing attempts to reconstruct Einstein's thought in the context of the state of research at the turn of the century. Thus, perhaps for the first time, Einstein's surroundings come to light
Biography
xiii, 882 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780670855452, 9780140237191, 0670855456, 0140237194
35033555
Family
School
A "child prodigy"
"Vagabond and loner" : student days in Zurich
Looking for a job
Expert III class
"Herr Doktor Einstein" and the reality of atoms
The "very revolutionary" light quanta
Relative movement : "my life for seven years"
The theory of relativity : "a modification of the theory of space and time"
Acceptance, opposition, tributes
Expert II class
From "bad joke" to "Herr Professor"
Professor in Zurich
Full professor in Prague, but not for long
Toward the general theory of relativity
From Zurich to Berlin
"In a madhouse" : a pacifist in Prussia
"The greatest satisfaction of my life" : the completion of the general theory of relativity
Wartime in Berlin
Postwar chaos and revolution
Confirmation and the deflection of light : "the suddenly famous Dr. Einstein"
Relativity under the spotlight
"Traveler in relativity"
Jewry, Zionism, and a trip to America
More hustle, long journeys, a lot of politics, and a little physics
Einstein receives the Nobel Prize and in consequence becomes a Prussian
"The marble smile of implacable nature" : the search for the unified field theory
The problems of quantum theory
Critique of quantum mechanics
Politics, patents, sickness, and a "wonderful egg"
Public and private affairs
Farewell to Berlin
Exile in liberation
Princeton
Physical reality and a paradox, relativity and unified theory
War, a letter, and the bomb
Between bomb and equations
"An old debt."