UNITED KINGDOM AUTHOR · HISTORY · BIOGRAPHY
Ronald W. Clark
Charlie Nelson was watching TV when the stranger appeared on the roof
— from Einstein
Most acclaimed
Benjamin Franklin
1889
Benjamin Franklin is perhaps the most remarkable figure in American history: the greatest statesman of his age, he played a pivotal role in the formation of the American republic. He was also a pioneering scientist, a best selling author, the country's first postmaster general, a printer, a bon vivant, a diplomat, a ladies' man, and a moralist-and the most prominent celebrity of the eighteenth century. Franklin was, however, a man of vast contradictions, as Edmund Morgan demonstrates in this brilliant biography. A reluctant revolutionary, Franklin had desperately wished to preserve the British Empire, and he mourned the break even as he led the fight for American independence. Despite his passion for science, Franklin viewed his groundbreaking experiments as secondary to his civic duties. And although he helped to draft both the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution, he had personally hoped that the new American government would take a different shape. Unraveling the enigma of Franklin's character, Morgan shows that he was the rare individual who consistently placed the public interest before his own desires.
Albert Einstein
2002
Born in Ulm, Germany, in 1879, Albert Einstein altered the way we view the physical world with his scientific theories. He wasn't the best student in school. He preferred to learn about subjects that interested him, such as mathematics and science. When he graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in 1900, Einstein struggled to find a job. He ended up working for the patent office in Bern, Switzerland. During this time, he wrote several theories, including the theory of relativity. His theories made him an important international figure and he traveled extensively to give lectures on his ideas. He won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921 for his work. In 1933, Einstein moved to the United States to work at Princeton University and avoid persecution by the Nazis in Germany for speaking out against the government. He died in 1955, leaving our understanding of gravity, energy, matter, light, and time forever changed.
Einstein
To the modern world, Albert Einstein is the archetypal scientist. His name is synonymous with genius, his image is instantly recognized, and his life's work is universally acknowledged as the bedrock of contemporary physics. In this absorbing book by the authors of Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science, Einstein's life and work are recounted in an unprecedentedly accessible way. Although his most important work dates from 1905, the figure of Einstein still towers over the twentieth century. The one equation everyone knows is E=mc[superscript 2], but most of us could not explain what it means. The man to explain it is John Gribbin, a masterful science writer, who elucidates the special and general theories of relativity, as well as electromagnetism, space-time, and other mysteries. Along with lucid descriptions of Einstein's milestone contributions, Gribbin recounts his debates with fellow scientists and the failures that shadowed his later scientific life. Einstein was also a political activist, violin player, and family man. The twists and turnings of his life, so closely linked to the turbulent history of the era, are nimbly charted by Michael White. The questions White tackles are personal ones: What became of Einstein's illegitimate child? Did his first wife, Mileva, contribute to the early, groundbreaking work? We learn of Einstein's possible schizophrenia early in life, his two marriages, his friendships with such figures as Franz Kafka and Bertrand Russell, and the search for security and sanctuary that led him from one country to another in Europe, and then from Nazi Germany to his tenure as a "scientific saint" in America. White portrays Einstein as a man brimming with paradoxes - a pacifist who advocated the creation of an atomic weapons program, a man who hated regimentation but who was beguiled by the strict beauty of mathematics, an atheist and a dedicated Zionist, a figure revered by the world yet kept under surveillance by the FBI. Einstein is an example of biography at its best - a truly exceptional portrait of a man who was not only an intellectual giant but who also possessed an instinctive morality that demanded he try his utmost to make the world a better place.