Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
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Book Summary Author: Walter Isaacson Brand: Baker and Taylor Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2008-05-13 ISBN: 0743264746 Number of pages: 704 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Accessories:
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Book Reviews of the Einstein: His Life and Universe
Customer Review: limited
Summary: 1 Stars
First let me say that this seems to be a decent biography. Since that's all I wanted out of the book, you'd think I would be happy. But there are problems.
Unfortunately, the many discussions about Einstein's theories were not even slightly good. They were pretty much what you would expect from a journalist with little meaningful scientific training, in other words, inadequate. I don't know how he goofed this up since there are hundreds of books that do a decent job of making the stuff understandable. All he had to do was paraphrase here and there. He could even have copied Einstein's own words!
The main problem with the book, however, was with the mis characterization of Einstein including his beliefs and accomplishments. Throughout the book, he correctly relates that Einstein pretty much regarded himself as a scientist who just happened to be born Jewish. He married a Catholic, did not raise his children as Jews and even favored Palestinian causes. And yet Isaacson keeps trying to stretch him into the role of "our Jew." Isaacson even tries to convince us that Einstein was handsome. He seems to see the world only as Jews and non Jews.
This kind of ethnic exaggeration pervades the book and becomes annoying after a while. He mentions, for instance, that in pre Hitler Germany, 40% of the top scientists were Jewish. And yet he claims that Jews were treated unfairly in scientific circles there. This is the type of stuff that sets Jews back as others see this kind of thinking for the nonsense it is. Although Jews and others have almost completely melted into American society over the last century, chauvinist throwbacks like this pop up now and then to reignite a long ago melted stereotype. I have more Gentile friends than my parents, not because of any bias, but because my friendships are forged by factors other than cultural heritage, factors that have become more relevant. Now we Americans don't hang out in ethnic enclaves, we fight with each other in all sorts of unique ways--males and females, blacks and whites, Democrats an Republicans, whacko Christians and all other, Muslims and all other, the list goes on. Jews in America vs anyone else almost seems like a joke.
I might add that anyone who has undergone one of those genetic ancestry tests would readily agree that the whole concept of cultural origins is much more complicated that any one word label. In fact if you go back far enough, you get into being a descendant of a creepy swamp thing with hair vs one without and with gills, all of whom pooped in their pond water.
Nobody doubts that Einstein was a great scientist. But it is also true that he burned out early and turned into a shameless showboat, complete with his own bimbos and entourage. His scientific theories were quickly surpassed in large part by quantum mechanics and left unfulfilled by his weakness in mathematics. The fuzzy hair and rumpled suits were a sideshow.