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Summary: Penetrates to the heart and soul of an amazing intellect
Review: "Ideas and Opinions" reveals much about the thought processes, culture, and observations that shaped the character of Albert Einstein. In a remarkable series of insightful short prose selections, the reader learns a great deal about Einstein's views on morality and ethics; religion, particularly Judaism; government; the arts, literature, and higher education; philosophy; and government. His personal letters to and observations about other key persons of his time including Shaw, Freud, Gandhi, and Lorentz illustrate what a fully integrated individual Einstein truly was, a view that may counter some of the extreme depictions that render him a genius incapable of focusing beyond his science. Having some many thoughts from this astounding intellect pulled into one volume makes this book a worthwhile addition to the stack of rainy day books. It's a book to be consumed in fits and starts, with a cup of coffee on the screened porch in the rain, a treat for inquiring minds. The prose, perhaps a tad stilted by modern standards, is lucid. And seeing Einstein turn his attention on the topic everyone wrangles with forges a new link to him and his work. As he stated, " The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
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Summary: Incredible!
Review: A deeper look into the man who changed science forever! This book reveals Einstein as the philosopher, humanitarian, educator, and politician most people never knew. I haven't finished the book, but I pick it up all the time to read an essay or two. A great insight into a great mind!
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Summary: illuminating insight into the man behind Relativity
Review: Escaping from the confines of pure science, gIdeas and Opinionsh provides illuminating insight into the philosophy, politics and humanity of the man behind Relativity. Broaching such diverse topics as religion, science, human rights, economics and peace, Einstein reveals his disdain for the current direction of society and his advocacy of community solidarity. gIdeas and Opinionsh remains a fitting testimonial to one of the greatest and eclectic minds of the modern era.
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Summary: Great Book Equally Brilliant and Compassionate
Review: He was a great human being all around. This book, a collection of essays, shows that he was in tune with the world around him and able to offer compelling observations.
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Summary: Genius, Humanitarian and Great Man
Review: How can one review the words of a Genius, many years ahead of his time....a man who's mind grasped concepts that most people still do not remotely comprehend...a man who worked as a Humanitarian, while the world thought him a destroyer...? This book contains Einstien's views on Politics, Disarmament, Education, Freedom, The Jewish People, Germany, and much more. I found this work to be very inspiring and hope to see it never go out of print....for the Great Minds of the past are our Hope for The Future.
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Summary: Ideas and Opinions - A great Book
Review: I am fascinated by Albert Einstein, and every quote of his intrigues me even more about Space, Time, and Math. This book focuses on all those unique quotes of Einstein, and reviews writings of his. This book is a definite must whether you are curious about Albert or already know much about him... it's perfect for any book collection.
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Summary: Bank of information, good to have.
Review: I am pleased I bought this book, The reason I chose to write this review is that it is a good book for a broad spectrum of persons. If you have any interest in the workings of life, it is worth it to have this book in your home. I would give a specific review but others have done that. The only thing that I was surprised with is that Dr. Einstein only expresses his opinions so accurately close and congruent to scientific known facts. I thought from what I had heard he was more wandering, he does not take chances. Even though he covers religion, he still will not express an opinion of true origins, but leaves so much to what has been proven. I did like that as it causes venturous thought and that is for certain this book will cause a reader to ponder considerably. I have recently read a very good book that covers this same type of matter but a slight more adventurous. Amazon recommends we mention books that are similar, Karl Mark Maddox is an up and coming theorist and scientist has a suprising paperback titled SB 1 or God.
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Summary: Pure Beauty
Review: I picked up this book as one person, and came out another. The honesty, clarity, emotion, and intellgence within this book will change you to. Humans tend to spend life creating their own worlds. Few men have spent as much time forming a clear, beautiful, and moral world view, Einstein is one of them. Read this book and let it form a peice of your world.
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Summary: Excellent Scientific Perspective
Review: Ideas and Opinions expresses a wide range of Einstein's thoughts throughout his life. The subject matter includes comments on freedom, politics, pacifism, education, religion, Germany, friends, and scientific issues. Whereas Einstein had a specific goal in writing each of these addresses, speeches and articles, the editor of this collection by combining Einstein's writings in this manner paints a picture of the man and his time. The most profound impact upon the reader is not the individual message of each writing, but rather how the whole body of work illuminates the dedication and fierce determination of one scientist to make himself a "harmonious personality" (64). One of the features of this collection is that it attempts to present each article in a straightforward manner. Each article is titled by what it attempts to say, for example one article is called "My First Impressions of the U.S.A." (3). This accurately reflects what Einstein says in this article, but so much more than what this title describes is also reflected in the essay. Einstein's political attitudes are best expressed not in his many essays on politics, government and pacifism, but instead in his First Impressions of America. One of his many observations is that "nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced" (6). Understanding this aspect is of immeasurable value when encountering Einstein's essay where he prescribes a program of action against atomic weapons. The greatest fault of this compilation is that it tends to be repetitive. However, this often helps to drive home the point and complete the overall picture of this man and his time. This text should be read by all persons everywhere. No other collection could possibly contain a better view of America, international relations, scientific issues and advances, religion, and humanity. For use in Honors Science, only certain readings would enhance the goal of the course, but including them would be invaluable not only for scientific perspective, but for an enriched experience of life itself.
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Summary: Other sides of the great scientific genius
Review: In some sense we all live in the age of Einstein. His major discoveries at the turn of the twentieth century in the papers published in his annus mirabilis 1905 totally changed the way mankind thought about the physical world. In these papers he helped lay the basis not only of special relativity but of quantum theory. Einstein later went on to extend our understanding of the universe with his more comprehensive theory of general relativity which was confirmed in the famous experiment of 1919. Einstein spent the latter years of his life looking apparently unsuccessfuly for a unified field theory which would unite all the forces of nature.
Einstein was a legend in his own time, one of the icons of the twentieth century. He played an important historical role when he helped forward the Manhattan Project and the US effort to build an atomic bomb. This is a step he had great regrets about. And the irony and painful truth is that this gentle man was responsible for the discovery which helped give Mankind for the first time in its history the power to wholly destroy itself. The truth is however, however Einstein may have regretted this the conversion of matter to energy which made the bomb possible would have been discovered by someone else.
These writings contain a wide variety of work on a wide variety of subjects. He writes on friends, and on freedom on education and on religion, on politics, government and pacifism.He writes on the Jewish people on Anti- Semitism on Zionism, and on his connection with the Jewish people.He writes on his relation to his native Germany. And he writes on his contributions to science.
One does not have to always agree with him to respect his greatness, his humility, his intellectual integrity and his devotion to truth and to mankind.
He like all scientists before him even Newton ' stands on the shoulders of giants' But in our time and for it seems the foreseeable future to come he is the greatest giant of all.
And the consequences of his work, and the questions raised by him will be with us for so long as mankind seeks to comprehend the world.
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