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Einstein, Walter Isaacson's masterly biography.
A page turner. Full of the life of Einstein and his fellow scientists in his day. Interesting insights into the person and his work. Easy to understand explanations of the science and theories. A tireless work of research and building up in a logical order of a life filled with the excitement of discovery, the pressure to be first in formulating ideas, to maintain friendships and remain true to basic human dignity in the face of an emerging ruthless political system. The sadness of drifting off on the seemingly dead end of finding a field theory and rejecting the lure of quantum mechanics.
This book was hard to put away for the night. Prose and style give support to the reader. No loose ends, no questions or vagueness. At the end of the book, all has been dealt with and the only thing remaining is the useless bookmark and the need to find a book as good as this one. Of course, one can always start at page one again.

Good, but not to the level of Isaacson's "Franklin"
It is interesting to see that 4 years after Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin: An American Life he chose to write about another rebel scientist in Albert Einstein. While the two men make a great compare/contrast it doesn't make it any easier for the author writing the books (NOTE: At no point during "Einstein" does Isaacson try to compare/contrast the two). While writing on Franklin most readers can grasp the scientific and political thoughts that are being discussed. This is not necessarily true of the readers of Einstein.

I need to offer a bit of a disclaimer - I am a degreed engineer who has taken multiple classes in quantum mechanics. However, there are times I had difficulty in grasping the concepts that Isaacson was presenting. While I believe that Isaacson did much research I did find that his approach to explaining the concepts to be a bit clumsy. Please do not take this as being overly negative - MOST people will look clumsy when trying to explain the theory of general relativity or the photoelectric effect. However, in "einstein" it made sections of the book very difficult to read much less comprehend. I have a lot of sympathy to the readers who have never been introduced to these concepts prior to reading "Einstein".

That is the negative - it can be a very difficult read at times (which is the reason for 4 stars instead of 5). On a positive note (and there are many more positives than negatives) Isaacson has presented us with a lovable yet humanly flawed Einstein. We are told of the passion and failures of his first marriage. We are shown great insights into the curious thought experiments that he performed to generate his great insights (such as a person who is accelerated downward at high acceleration doesn't know if it is "gravity" or another force that he is feeling) or the perceived changes in light on a passenger on a train compared to someone viewing from the train station.

Another insight that we rarely see is his opposition to nationalism and the loss of personal liberty. Einstein was a very outspoken critic of McCarthyism and he did not shy away from the controversy. In short, Einstein was a rebel for the conventional thought of science and that of politics. Isaacson is very skilled in showing these comparisons throughout Einstein's life.

While Isaacson's "Einstein" does not reach the level of "Franklin" in story-telling skill or scientific explanation it is still a must read for anyone curious in the development of modern thought in Physics...for everyone else... I hope you are up to the challenge. 4 stars.

4 stars.

Einstein's Life
This is an outstanding life of Einstein; it portrays his genius at every stage of life, and leads to understanding his positions on issues both scientific and political.

Great peek into the brain and being of the man
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R97YEZJZMMBZG My personal opinion and impression of this complicated life story

A must-read if you are interested in the history of science
Walter Isaacson has done a masterful job of retracing Albert Einstein's life, including his earliest childhood, his miracle year of 1905, the development of general relativity and his political activism. This book is an erudite yet thoroughly readable and entertaining look at the man.

His genius was in being able to see physical meaning to equations; to him an equation was a representation of physical reality. His weakness was in not accepting quantum mechanics, to which can be attributed his famous quote about God and dice. Most enjoyable about the book were his exchanges with the quantum scientists such as Max Born and Niels Bohr. Isaacson was completely objective, illustrating his strengths in science, his weaknesses in relationships, and his naïveté in politics.

The author also was able to communicate the difficult scientific concepts necessary for understanding physics today. Indeed this is the clearest book I have read on the subject but possibly also the least detailed, although these may go hand-in-hand. I suggest, if you are making a new foray into reading about the history of physics, that you start here. This book will give you a good foothold into reading other books such as Kip Thorne's "Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy."