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Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel by Banesh Hoffmann - 4 stars - My Review

As indicated in the subtitle, this book focuses on Einstein’s creativity. He had an amazing amount of intuition about the scientific principles of our world. The book covers his theories – many that were eventually confirmed (or at least generally agreed upon) and a few that were eventually debunked. It is a book for science fans. Those interested in his personal life will find only the basics here, but it does give the reader a glimpse into his temperament, political views, and fears about the ways his discoveries could be (and were) used.

I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of Einstein’s theories in terms that are (fairly) easily understood. I say “fairly” easily since I think it is dependent upon the reader’s familiarity with scientific principles. Topics include the general theory of relativity, special theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, and properties of light, electromagnetism, and gravity. The author uses accessible analogies and eliminates the mathematical proofs. He has a wry sense of humor and occasionally asks the reader to “bear with me – we’ll return to this exciting discovery later.” It is obvious the author is enthusiastic about this material. I looked Hoffmann up later and found that he worked with Einstein personally, and contributor Helen Dukas worked as Einstein’s administrative assistant.

I loved the inclusion of Einstein’s interactions with other notable scientists of the day, and their lively discourses and disagreements about their scientific discoveries. Examples include Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, and Max Planck. Einstein predicted the existence of black holes (a term not coined until the 1960s) in 1916. This book was published in 1972 at a time when they were just being proven to exist. Even so, the author’s approach feels fresh, and sheds light on Einstein’s methods, opinions beyond science, and personality quirks.