Einstein did not fail Math in school? You gotta be kidding me!

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	• Einstein: His Life and Universe Walter Isaacson Simon & Schuster, 2008 - 704 pages average customer review:based on 218 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know...

Isaacson presents a wealth of information on Albert Einstein. Maybe a bit too much. I would have preferred more anecdotes about his personality and relationships, and a bit less emphasis on the details of his work. That's probably because I'm a psychologist and not a physicist.
This is a comprehensive work that seems to be based on meticulous research. This was quite an undertaking. The massive book could be called, "Everything You Wanted To Know About Einstein But Were Afraid To Ask." Seriously, I believe this is the definitive work on Einstein. Incredible detail. You'll learn about the man, his family and friends, his religous and political stances, his passions, his incredible work ethic, and his genius. Highly recommended.

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Wonderful reading

If you enjoy reading about people, how they live, how they think, this is a must read. While the book also touches on some of the properties of physics, purely lay man's terms, it doesn't get bogged down in mathematics or the like. Truly a great read.

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Imagination and rebellion are relative!

Since there are so many cerebral reviews here is some humor. You do not have to understand science to enjoy this book but you do have to weight lift because "Einstein" weighs in at two and a half pounds. (It is not a book you can carry around with you everywhere...I tried.)

I am an artist and I would fail a science quiz on this but it is an extremely well written book and Walter Isaacson does his best to make it intellectually digestible to non-science minded individuals that appreciate dynamism, rebellion, imagination as well as trying to understand this universe. The other 150 reviews can give you the insights. Einstein stated, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." I real am worried for the future of this planet if young people do not use their imagination and creativity and just sit in front of a tv all day or replace movies with reading. We need to read on diverse topics and than think, imagine. This book is really good brain food. Read it!

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Einstein did not fail Math in school? You gotta be kidding me!

What are we supposed to tell the people who fail math and science in school, but still claim to be geniuses now?

Anyway, I am glad that Mr. Isaacson set the record straight about Einstein's grades, especially the ones in math. If one knows what mathematical devices Einstein's theories include, one can never claim that Einstein was ever even close to failing math.

I would like to list the pros of this book below. Please read it for the cons yourself, since I could not find any, and never intended to find one:

* Einstein's theories are generally too abstract, and not everyone can understand them easily. However, Mr. Isaacson explains them as extensively as possible, which makes the reader's job easier.

* The author spares a sufficient portion in the book to explain Einstein's thought experiments. The reader can understand these experiments with a little effort since it is clear that Mr. Isaacson made sure he understood them first. If a physicist had written this book, I don't think he would bother going into this much detail, since he would assume that the reader would already know a lot about Physics.

* Even though I mostly care about the scientist Einstein, I need to give credit to the author for making the human side of Einstein sound interesting as well.

** The Best Side of This Book: I was amazed as I read the correspondence between Einstein and the pioneers of Physics at the start of the 20th century. Before, I did not know that Einstein and the other geniuses of the 20th century were in touch with each other. While reading the book, I learned that Einstein was in direct contact with Madam Curie, Poincare, Riemann, Eddington, Bohr, Born, De Broglie, Planck, Dirac, Pauli, etc. either in person or through writing.

*** The Most Touching Part of the Book: The fact that Einstein had to quit the German Gymnasium (high school) because he was a Jew, and the fact that he could not get an academic job at universities for 4 years after his 4 ground-breaking papers in 1905 because of the same reason.

**** The Most Disturbing Side of Einstein: The fact that he joined a Zionist cult later in his life, and traveled to America to do some fundraising upon receiving the cult leader's order.

***** What I would do differently if I were Einstein? I would choose Caltech over Princeton, not the other way around. Had he never read about California's weather?

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reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

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