Einstein in Bohemia - by Michael D Gordin (Hardcover)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>"Though Einstein is undoubtedly one of the most important figures in the history of modern science, he was in many respects marginal. Despite being one of the creators of quantum theory, he remained skeptical of it, and his major research program while in Princeton -the quest for a unified field- ultimately failed. In this book, Michael Gordin explores this paradox in Einstein's life by concentrating on a brief and often overlooked interlude: his tenure as professor of physics in Prague, from April of 1911 to the summer of 1912. Though often dismissed by biographers and scholars, it was a crucial year for Einstein both personally and scientifically: his marriage deteriorated, he began thinking seriously about his Jewish identity for the first time, he attempted a new explanation for gravitation-which though it failed had a significant impact on his later work-and he met numerous individuals, including Max Brod, Hugo Bergmann, Philipp Frank, and Arnoést Kolman, who would continue to influence him. In a kind of double-biography of the figure and the city, this book links Prague and Einstein together. Like the man, the city exhibits the same paradox of being both central and marginal to the main contours of European history. It was to become the capital of the Czech Republic but it was always, compared to Vienna and Budapest, less central in the Habsburg Empire. Moreover, it was home to a lively Germanophone intellectual and artistic scene, thought the vast majority of its population spoke only Czech. By emphasizing the marginality and the centrality of both Einstein and Prague, Gordin sheds new light both on Einstein's life and career and on the intellectual and scientific life of the city in the early twentieth century"--<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p><b>A finely drawn portrait of Einstein's sixteen months in Prague</b> <p/>In the spring of 1911, Albert Einstein moved with his wife and two sons to Prague, the capital of Bohemia, where he accepted a post as a professor of theoretical physics. Though he intended to make Prague his home, he lived there for just sixteen months, an interlude that his biographies typically dismiss as a brief and inconsequential episode. <i>Einstein in Bohemia</i> is a spellbinding portrait of the city that touched Einstein's life in unexpected ways--and of the gifted young scientist who left his mark on the science, literature, and politics of Prague. <p/>Michael Gordin's narrative is a masterfully crafted account of a person encountering a particular place at a specific moment in time. Despite being heir to almost a millennium of history, Einstein's Prague was a relatively marginal city within the sprawling Austro-Hungarian Empire. Yet Prague, its history, and its multifaceted culture changed the trajectories of Einstein's personal and scientific life. It was here that his marriage unraveled, where he first began thinking seriously about his Jewish identity, and where he embarked on the project of general relativity. Prague was also where he formed lasting friendships with novelist Max Brod, Zionist intellectual Hugo Bergmann, physicist Philipp Frank, and other important figures. <p/><i>Einstein in Bohemia</i> sheds light on this transformative period of Einstein's life and career, and brings vividly to life a beguiling city in the last years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.</p><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>Gordin's book is refreshing, engaging, sucks you into Eastern Europe where all the magic happened in the 1910s.<b>---Adam Tamas Tuboly, <i>Review of History of Philosophy of Science Books</i></b><br><br><i>Einstein in Bohemia</i> is a methodological confection, carefully concocted from an unlikely pairing of the textures and flavors of two historical ingredients: Einstein and Prague.<b>---M. Norton Wise, <i>ISIS</i></b><br><br><i>Einstein in Bohemia</i> is a stunning book that should make one think differently about place, time, identity, and historical causation. It is provocative and methodologically fascinating - indeed, one could teach an entire graduate methods seminar just from the introduction. It is beautifully written from start to finish and is compelling on every page. This is a must-read for historians of science, or really historians in general - and anyone interested in what it means to be in a place, at a time, and how those affect who someone is.<b>---Matthew Stanley, <i>Annals of Science</i></b><br><br>[Gordin] is a vivid writer who uses a biographical approach to bring the past and its people alive. . . . This account of [Einstein's] challenging interlude in Bohemia is at once informative, engaging, and enjoyable.<b>---Simon Mitton, <i>The Observatory</i></b><br><br>[Gordin] explodes the narrative out of what he calls the 'spacetime interval' of 1911-12 to follow a host of figures who were involved with Einstein in Prague, in some cases very tangentially. In so doing, he careers through the history of ideas as well as the political turmoil of Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic) during most of the twentieth century, touching on physics, philosophy, nationhood, anti-Semitism and the rise of Prague as a centre of intellectual life.<b>---Pedro Ferreira, <i>Nature</i></b><br><br>Gordin explores unknown connections and forgotten biographies with impressive scholarly meticulousness and fervor.<b>---Tilman Sauer, <i>Science</i></b><br><br>Gordin's <i>Einstein in Bohemia</i> affords us a refreshingly different kind of perspective on Einstein in context. The book treats its location - Prague in 1911 and 1912 - not merely as a backdrop, but as an integral part of the drama.<b>---Don Howard, <i>Physics Today</i></b><br><br>I was gripped . . . this is such a delightful and unusual book.<b>---Richard Joyner, <i>Times Higher Education</i></b><br><br><i>Einstein in Bohemia</i> is as much a series of essays on historical method and memory as it is a biography that uses Einsteinian ideas about perspective and spacetime to riff about the relationship between past and present, space and place. It's also very much a book about Prague. It works in movements, looking backward and forward from Einstein's Bohemian interlude to explore issues of biography, physics, Czech and German nationalism, the philosophy of science, literature, Jewishness, and public monuments. It is best savored in chunks, to better indulge in moments of reflection.<b>---Audra J. Wolfe, <i>Los Angeles Review of Books</i></b><br><br>Gordin handles the theme of 'belonging' with great nuance and understanding.<b>---David Luhrssen, <i>The Shepherd Express</i></b><br><br>Through extensive primary sources, Gordin explores the effect that Prague's rich history infused into Einstein's life, and the way that Einstein made his own significant mark on Bohemia's story.<b>---Alden Hunt, <i>Princeton Alumni Weekly</i></b><br><br>A meticulously researched, accessible, and fascinating portrait of Einstein.<b>---Glenn C. Altschuler, <i>Jerusalem Post</i></b><br><br>In this deeply researched and documented study, Gordin treats this brief period in Einstein's life as a prism through which the physicist refracts a broad range of intellectual, personal, scientific, and religious topics. The author sees Einstein as a window to understand Prague, and vice-versa, and reveals, in elegant and engaging prose, stimulating insights into many larger issues.<b>---P. W. Knoll, <i>Choice</i></b><br><br>[This] book paints a rich picture of a small part in Einstein's life that will be fascinating to anyone interested not only in the scientist but also his historical context.-- "Nature Astronomy"<br><br>[A] deeply researched, wide-ranging and original book.<b>---Andrew Robinson, <i>Physics World</i></b><br><br>His original and illuminating study . . . is a fascinating mix of urban and scientific history, and a genuinely original contribution to Einstein studies that explores both the effect of the city on the scientist and the lasting impact Einstein's presence had on the cultural and scientific life of Prague itself.<b>---P. D. Smith, <i>Times Literary Supplement</i></b><br><br>Meticulous in scholarship and erudite in tone . . . [<i>Einstein in Bohemia</i>] will doubtless become an essential reference for anyone researching what has usually been seen as a minor chapter in Einstein's life.<b>---Andrew Crumey, <i>Wall Street Journal</i></b><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Michael D. Gordin</b> is the Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Princeton University. His books include <i>A Well-Ordered Thing: Dmitrii Mendeleev and the Shadow of the Periodic Table</i> and <i>Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War</i> (both Princeton). He lives in Princeton, New Jersey. Twitter @GordinMichael
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