Summary and Reviews of Einstein by Walter Isaacson

Media Reviews

Popmatters - Kathleen Krog Like its subject, Walter Isaacson’s ambitious biography of Albert Einstein radiates intelligence, wit and eloquence. You won’t need to recall high school physics and geometry to grasp Einstein’s soaring concepts, which changed the study of the science and provided the seedling for the atom bomb.

Los Angeles Times - George Johnson Occasioned by the release of more Einstein papers, his book re-creates events with a richness not possible before. Isaacson, who cut his teeth as a political correspondent for Time magazine, does a fine job of explaining some difficult science.

The Boston Globe - Amir D. Aczel Overall, this is an excellent book and has much to recommend it. Isaacson's biography is well researched and contains a surprising amount of new information about its enigmatic subject .... [his] writing style is engaging and lively, although at times the subject matter slows him down somewhat ... There are a few other flaws in the book. One is Isaacson's pursuit of an unconfirmed rumor about Einstein's love life .... Possibly, this problem and others arise from Isaacson's use of some secondary sources of dubious quality among a large totality of references, most of which are helpful and dependable. But the flaws in this biography are minor, and the book emerges as a major and authoritative work on one of the most interesting figures in the history of science.

The Washington Post - Michael Dirda [A] painstaking and reliable biography. You won't go wrong in reading and learning from it.

The New York Times - Janet Maslin Mr. Isaacson has great fun with the reportorial frenzy that surrounded each new pearl of Einsteinian wisdom … an illuminating delight.

Booklist - Donna Seaman Starred Review. In his penetrating and magnificently nuanced biography of Albert Einstein, Isaacson elucidates Einstein's nonconformist and philosophical temperament and the particular nature of his genius within a richly textured social context, and he precisely explains Einstein's "astonishing, mysterious, and counterintuitive" scientific achievements and their epic consequences.

Kirkus Reviews An exemplary biography, at once sympathetic and unsparing. Readers will admire Einstein's greatness as a thinker, but they will now know that he, like all other idols, had feet of clay.

Library Journal - Jack W. Weigel This work, the first full biography of Einstein since all his papers have been made available, is well written and sensibly balanced in its treatment of the famed theoretical physicist, his family, and his friends. Certainly one of the best and most complete Einstein biographies thus far.

Publishers Weekley Isaacson focuses more on Einstein the man: charismatic and passionate, often careless about personal affairs; outspoken and unapologetic about his belief that no one should have to give up personal freedoms to support a state.

Reader Reviews

Fred Landis
Science and nationalism
The realities of war,nationality,and religion are almost ignored in previous biographies of Einstein.This is the first to make clear that if Neils Bohr had not been Danish he would not have had access to research from both the British and German ...   Read More

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