Einstein A to Z

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, Accessible- Great Teaching/Research Guide
Review: A wonderful easy-to-read book on all the chapters on Einstein's life. Succinct, complete, and understandable descriptions of his theories as well as interesting analysis of his personal life. The book is arranged so one can quickly find the topic and read the short essays. FANTASTIC for research... the topics can be read out of order. Enlightening and amusing (this is not a dry text book) , I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn (in a quick, entertaining, and organized fashion) more about the science, myths, truths of Einstein's work and life.

Rating:
Summary: Surprsingly entertaining and informative
Review: At first glance, could there be a worse way to present the life and work of a deep and complex figure like Einstein than chopping him up into 300 pages of encyclopedia entries? Much to my surprise, this fresh approach to Einstein by science writers Karen Fox and Aries Keck really works. It helps that every entry is well researched and sparkingly written, but even the inevitable repetitions turn out to be helpful, often reinforcing an important idea or presenting it from a different angle. I read the book from beginning to end on a long airplane trip, and found it as enjoyable and engrossing as any book I've read recently.

Even though I've read many books about Einstein, and written a chapter about him in my book _Science Firsts_, I found quite a lot in _Einstein A to Z_ that was new to me. For example, I did not know that the German army was aware of the possibility of an atomic bomb as early as 1924, or how intensely Einstein was monitored by the FBI from 1932 on, or that Life magazine once labelled Einstein a Communist dupe or fellow traveller. I also thought the authors did a great job of tracing the evolution of Einstein's philosophical thoughts about science, from a very hard-nosed version of Mach's positivism (physics should deal only with observables) that guided his earliest work to a view that embraced the necessity of hypothesizing intangibles such as the gravitational field.

My only quibble with the authors was what I felt was their somewhat apologetic depiction of Einstein's lifelong battle against political repression wherever her encountered it. This was as central to Einstein as his science. He was outspoken in his battles against fascism and anti-Semitism in Germany, McCarthyism in the U.S., the nuclear arms race, and excessive nationalism wherever he saw it, including, as the authors point out, in Israel. His political views may or may not play well in America today, but they certainly don't need to be apologized for.

I don't think Einstein A to Z should be the only book about Einstein a person reads, but it certainly can hold its own with the more traditionally organized biographies. It's well worth reading.

Robert Adler, author of _Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation_; and _Medical Firsts: From Hippocrates to the Human Genome_.

Rating:
Summary: Well-written reference, but nothing new
Review: I bought this book because I really enjoyed Fox's Big Bang book. I was pretty disappointed. Though written well, this book is an overly sanitized biography that really doesn't add anything to the literature on Einstein. If you're in middle school or high school and doing a first report on Einstein, this book will probably be very helpful. If you're looking for insight or a new take on Einstein, as I was, this book is not for you.

Rating:
Summary: I guess I'm not the intended customer on this one.
Review: I guess I'm not the intended customer on this one. It read like a stack of high school book reports and the writing style felt somewhat clichéd. The information is there though. Could easily be given a yellow "Einstein for Dummies" cover.

Rating:
Summary: I guess I AM the right audience. . .
Review: I picked this up and was amazed when it was 3 hours later and I'd let everything else I was supposed to do in the afternoon slip by me. I'm NOT a scientist, so perhaps it's not aimed at people who already know a lot about Einstein, but it was just the perfect level for me. I liked the stories about his life interwoven with information about his theories. The format of the book -- it's made of lots of entries on subjects from his relationships with women to his work on the atom bomb -- really worked for me, and I'd love to see other biographies organized like this!

Rating:
Summary: Accessible information for the non-scientist
Review: This book is a great first-stop for students researching Einstein's life and works as well as those who want to gain some insight on Einstein but don't want to read a textbook. The book's easy-to-read sections teach you enough on that particular topic to feel satisfied by what you've learned or confident enough to take your research further with a more in-depth source. I really like books that can draw me into science by showing the human side of a scientist; for me, it makes complicated theories that much more accessible. I would even recommend this book to a book club. Whether you read it in its entirety or read just the sections of particular interest to you, the book could really open up a great discussion about one of the world's biggest science icons.