Book review: Einstein

I recently completed Walter Isaacson's biography of Einstein titled 'Einstein, His life and universe'. At 600 pages it isn't what you'd call a quickie but it's a casual read owing to the simplicity of the language. The author has been the chairman of CNN and the managing director of the Time Magazine, credentials which do not comfort your skepticism as to his ability to do justice to the life and ideas of someone as technical as Einstein. So although there were words of praise from Brian Greene (host of the brilliant NOVA documentary Elegant Universe) and Murray Gel-mann (of the quark fame), I had my doubts to begin with. And added to that was my general dislike of biographies. I have always felt that biographies are, in general, more disingenuous that autobiographies, primarily because the author of a biography is someone who is already enamoured by the subject of his writing. It is hard for him to be objective and easy to fall into the trap of idolizing the person whose biography he is attempting. In addition to this, when it comes to someone like Einstein, I personally want only to be concerned with his ideas, his philosophies, and his achievements. A good biography, on the other hand, needs to supply a lot of other information like his childhood, his affairs, his family; sadly the things I have no interest in knowing. It's a very good biography in this sense and I cannot blame it for being so.

There are some very good aspects to the book though. Anyone who is writing Einstein's biography should be ready to get down and dirty with his physics. And Mr. Isaacson shows just the resolve and he even succeeds in his effort to a large extent. I remember Feynman said once that there is a difference between knowing 'inertia' and understanding 'inertia'. And the author of this book seems to understand the physics well enough to put it all in a very coherent causal framework where you do actually get the full import of Einstein's genius story. You understand how Galileo, Newton, Poincare, Lorentz, Maxwell, Minkowski, Hilbert, Reimann, Grossman, Bohr, Shroedinger, Pauli, Rosen, Podolski and their theories fill into the larger context and how they affected Einstein's vision. And you do get a decent feel (probably about as good as popular science can provide) for his crowning achievements, the special and general relativities. But the most important part of the book is its emphasis on Einstein's imagination, as opposed to his knowledge, as being the reason for his success. One cannot understate the non-empiricism of Einstein's science. He never did science because he found an experimental reading he could not explain with the existing theories. His were always flights of imagination and childish curiosity. What would I see if I travelled alongside light matching its speed? Can a man tell the difference between gravity and matching acceleration? The book captures this subtle playfulness brilliantly.

It's definitely recommended for anyone who wants a general idea of the man and his science. It''s a very good and thorough biography, the reason why I had to skim through a lot of material. And it describes events of paramount importance in scientific history with the urgency and respect that they deserve. I would have wanted to read more about his philosophy but I guess a 'biography' is the worst place to look for it.

His last words