Einstein: His Space and Times

by Steven Gimbel

Overview

A revealing new portrait of Albert Einstein, the world’s first scientific “superstar”

The commonly held view of Albert Einstein is of an eccentric genius for whom the pursuit of science was everything. But in actuality, the brilliant innovator whose Theory of Relativity forever reshaped our understanding of time was a man of his times, always politically engaged and driven by strong moral principles. An avowed pacifist, Einstein’s mistrust of authority and outspoken social and scientific views earned him death threats from Nazi sympathizers in the years preceding World War II. To him, science provided not only a means for understanding the behavior of the universe, but a foundation for considering the deeper questions of life and a way for the worldwide Jewish community to gain confidence and pride in itself.
 
Steven Gimbel’s biography presents Einstein in the context of the world he lived in, offering a fascinating portrait of a remarkable individual who remained actively engaged in international affairs throughout his life. This revealing work not only explains Einstein’s theories in understandable terms, it demonstrates how they directly emerged from the realities of his times and helped create the world we live in today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300244373
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	03/26/2019
Series:	Jewish Lives
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Steven Gimbel was previously the Edwin T. and Cynthia Shearer Johnson Chair for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities as well as chair of the philosophy department at Gettysburg College. He lives in Mount Airy, MD.

Editorial Reviews

With graceful lucidity, Gimbel illuminates the intensely personal challenges facing the great physicist.”—Bryce Christensen, Booklist, Starred Review

“This work provides an enjoyable tour through Einstein’s scientific career and discoveries. This is not so much a straightforward biography of Einstein as a presentation of his thought processes, and a pleasant, informative, and well-paced description of what Einstein accomplished as a scientist.”—Donald Goldsmith, author of Einstein’s Greatest Blunder?

“Steven Gimbel is one of a kind. He can explain the science, the philosophy, and the personal and professional life of Einstein, and do so with clarity, sophistication, and panache.”—Peter Achinstein, author of Evidence and Method

From the Publisher

03/30/2015
Gimbel (Einstein’s Jewish Science), chair of the philosophy department at Gettysburg College, provides a short, comprehensive portrait of Albert Einstein, covering both his life and scientific work. As an installment of Yale University Press’s “Jewish Lives” series, the book also focuses on Einstein’s understanding of himself as a Jew, despite his secular upbringing and beliefs. Gimbel doesn’t minimize Einstein’s flaws, revealing the “arrogance, lack of diligence, and unwillingness to follow directions” that cost him friends and jobs, as well as the politics behind the acceptance of his radical theories. In describing the latter part of Einstein’s life, Gimbel demonstrates the man’s personal complexity. During WWI, Einstein was a strong pacifist who wished for a “United States of Europe.” He carried a Swiss passport. His horror at the Nazis and their anti-Semitism drove him not to religion but to an ethnic sense of himself as a Jew. Einstein considered himself a Zionist, though given his outspoken belief in mutual acceptance, he did not support a nation-state, particularly one that took land from non-Jewish Palestinians. Gimbel reminds readers that Einstein was as personally complex as his theories, and that he thought as deeply about sociopolitical concerns as he did scientific ones. (May)

Publishers Weekly

The time is now ripe for a short book, summarizing briefly the well-known facts about Einstein’s rocky road as a husband and father and scientist, and emphasizing his lasting importance as a politician and a philosopher. This book is accurate and well balanced. It presents Einstein’s Jewish heritage as he saw it himself, not as the core of his being, but as a historical accident bringing inescapable responsibilities. The reasons for reading this book are also simple. . . . There are a few scientists whose lives and thoughts are of perennial interest, because they permanently changed our way of thinking. To the few belong Galileo and Newton and Darwin, and now Einstein. . . . New books will need to be written and read, because these people had enduring ideas that throw light on new problems as the centuries go by.”—Freeman Dyson, New York Review of Books

New York Review of Books - Freeman Dyson

"What makes Gimbel’s book different is its brevity and its emphasis on these cultural and political aspects of the man. Gimbel is a philosopher. . . yet at the same time the explanations of the science are exemplary—swift and clear."—Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times (London)
 

Sunday Times - Bryan Appleyard

“With graceful lucidity, Gimbel illuminates the intensely personal challenges facing the great physicist.”—Booklist, Starred Review

Booklist

04/01/2015
Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and work as a scientist from an early age is world renowned. It is hard to imagine a biography that could put a new face on such a well-known figure, but this one does. While offering accessible scientific, and theoretical explanations, Gimbel provides enough information for the reader to understand the included principles without getting too into the details. The author couches all of this within a picture of Einstein's faith, something not emphasized in similar works. While it provides a look at Einstein's spirituality, the biography does not overpower the reader with it, giving ample time to personal relationships and professional and political aspects of the subject's life. VERDICT This title will appeal to both scientists and nonscientists who want an overview of Einstein's life (1879–1955). Not a science or a religious text, Gimbel's book will give readers a well-rounded look at a very famous scientific figure.—Dawn Lowe-Wincentsen, Oregon Inst. of Technology, Portland

Library Journal

2015-02-05
How science, religion and politics shaped Einstein's life and work.As part of the Jewish Lives Series, Gimbel (Philosophy/Gettysburg Coll.; Einstein's Jewish Science: Physics at the Intersection of Politics and Religion, 2012, etc.) gives special emphasis to Einstein's connections to Judaism. Born to secular Jews in Germany in 1879, Einstein attended a Catholic school, where he was bullied for being "the Jewish kid." His response was rebellion: At the age of 8, he became "a deeply committed practicing Jew," observing dietary and religious laws. That early conversion, however, was short-lived. By high school, he became skeptical of mysticism, preferring to believe in "a wholly material universe guided by rational principles discoverable through scientific investigation." Continuing his education in Switzerland, his defiance against authorities of all kinds led to his renouncing his German nationality and eventually—in order to find a permanent job—taking on Swiss citizenship. Einstein's work in a patent office is well-known; Gimbel thinks the work was "enjoyable and challenging," since it involved investigating the technical originality of patent applications. Being a civil servant gave Einstein time to work on his own ideas, which culminated in publications that revolutionized thinking about matter, light, and Newtonian concepts of space, time, motion and mass. After being rejected for a Nobel Prize in physics for several years, Einstein finally earned one in 1921. Gimbel examines the role of anti-Semitism in Einstein's difficulty in securing teaching appointments, as well as the scientist's support of Zionism, which he hoped would help to create "a proud, self-possessed Jewish population who contributed to the betterment of all….Jews would be seen and, more important, see themselves, as valuable." The FBI considered his pacifism a sign of subversion and created a file on him. During the war, he was horrified by the potential of an atomic bomb, declaring after Hiroshima, "the war is won, but the peace is not." A fine, informative life of the renowned scientist.

Kirkus Reviews