Einstein, History, and Other Passions

"One can do no better than reading Gerald Holton for exploring the scientific mind. These essays are rich with a deep understanding of the scientific enterprise, the personalities of its practitioners, and a passion for communicating the history and culture of science." Alan Lightman, MIT From the opening pages this book presents an authoritative and accessible guide to the place of science in our culture today. Gerald Holton shows how the work of Einstein and his followers not only transformed science but also changed the non-scientific world, from literature and visual arts to philosophy and psychology. The recently found love letters between Albert Einstein and his first wife, Mileva Maric, are used as a keyhole for studying sympathetically how the young couple tried to fashion for themselves a life based both on their tumultuous passion for each other and their love for science. This provocative volume concludes with a gallery of finely drawn profiles of notable physicists including Robert Oppenheimer, P.W. Bridgman, I.I. Rabi, Richard Feynman, and the philosopher-scientist Michael Polanyi. Library of Science Book Club Selection